The battle for the youngest voters in the United States is a crucial front in the 2024 presidential election.

Gen Z was massively turned off by the prospect of Joe Biden vs Donald Trump – spelling big trouble for the Democrats. Kamala Harris appears to have re-energised them. She has helped register armies of new voters and inspired a million memes.

But jokes and TikTok videos don’t win elections. Votes do. And young voters can be notoriously absent on polling day. Can Harris and the Democratic Party convert this new wave of enthusiasm to actual electoral support? And what of the many young voters who prefer Trump anyway?

Before Biden pulled out, polls showed Trump was doing well with young voters. But no Republican has won the young American vote since 1998. Will 2024 be different?