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Brian Lehrer: It's the Brian Lehrer Show on WNYC. Good morning, everyone. The Democratic Convention, such as it is, begins one week from today. Four weeks from today is Labor Day, public school in most places begins right around then. We will talk about both things on the show this morning. Here's Governor Cuomo speaking on Friday.

Cuomo: We are probably in the best situation in the country right now. If anybody can open schools, we can open schools.

Brian: We will have three guests today on the personal and policy choices being faced by parents, teachers, and school systems, WNYC education reporter, Jessica Gould, doctor and parent, Dr. Uché Blackstock, and equity advocate, Mark Winston Griffith, from the Brooklyn Movement Center. That's coming up in about a half-hour. About that convention, though, NPR's Juana Summers has been asking questions like, what can the democrats do to turn young protesters into voters?

To that point, by the way, have you seen the #settleforbiden? It's a youth movement thing from Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren supporters who want people to vote and not to abstain in November. More of Juana Summers' reporting, why do more than half of young voters tell pollsters they're not sure if they have the knowledge or resources to vote by mail? Half the voters in the country live in suburbs, but who are the suburban voters of 2020? Juana asks in a recent piece. With us now is Juana Summers, political reporter, covering demographics and culture for NPR. Hi, Juana, thanks so much for coming on. Welcome back to WNYC.

Juana: Hey, there. Thanks for having me back.

Brian: You reported back in June, when the protest season was still very young, about the double-edged sword for the party, that young people are historically galvanized to make change right now, obviously, but part of the reason they're in the streets is that they think the regular political channels have failed to do so. How do you see the party deciding if there are many new voters among the protesters, and if so, trying to reach out?

Juana: Absolutely. As someone who's been out on the streets, where I live in Baltimore and other parts of the country, seeing these protests, I've been really stricken by the ethnic and racial diversity but also the age of the protesters, tons of young people out in the streets. I think that shows, as I've been talking to folks who work within the party, that these young folks, they're engaged, they're using their bodies in the streets to show what they care about and what is meaningful to them. The challenge the party has now is how to get them engaged in a system that many of them tell me, when I speak to them, they don't feel like it's working for them. I think that's a challenge particularly for Democrats this year, who are set to formally select Joe Biden as their nominee next week.

Joe Biden did not particularly fare well among the youngest segment of the electorate. Democrats have a huge challenge to engage these young people, to make them feel like the party is a natural home for them, that the process and the system is something that's worth investing in. They're going to do that in a number of ways. Many young people are really curious about who the former vice president will pick as his vice-presidential pick, running mate, to see if that's someone who will excite them.

They're also looking to see who Biden will elevate as he continues this process. I know there's those unity tasks forces that the former vice president has with Bernie Sanders's team. There's elevated leaders like Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, leaders from the Sunlight Movement, and others. They want to see their priorities being spoken to and listened to, and actually having a seat at the table instead of them just being dismissed. Again and again, there's this group of young voters who just don't turn up and who don't care.

Brian: Here's a short clip from that piece you reported of democratic strategist, Joel Payne, repeating a mantra of President Barack Obama from back when he was in office or running. The mantra was, "Don't boo, vote."

Joel Payne: "Don't boo, vote" is fine as a call to action, but that has to be matched with accountability. That has to be match with, "By the way, here are the things we are going to do once you vote."

Brian: That was two months ago that Joel Payne said that to you as a democratic strategist. Have Biden and the party been shaping campaign promises around that notion of telling protesters and other young voters who may be a little iffy in the turnout category that, "Hello, we have responsive policies"?

Juana: I do think that this is something that is front of mind for the Biden team. Also, I want to point out something that we've been seeing as a lot of investment recently, in both registering and mobilizing young voters at the candidate level but also by outside groups. There's also been a ton of investment in making sure that young candidates who are running for office groups, like run for something on the left, who are promoting those types of candidates and trying to make sure that these people feel like they have a place in the process. I think that they know that they care. The question a lot of folks who work on campaigns have been raising to me, at least, is how this pandemic has changed everything in terms of organizing, knowing that when we talk about young voters, we're also really talking about new voters.

Brian: Have you seen the #settleforbiden?

Juana: I have. I think I follow that hashtag on Instagram.

Brian: [laughs] For listeners that don't know, that was apparently started by young Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren supporters who want their fellow young Sanders and Warren supporters to "settle for Biden" enough to show up and vote at the very least. There are settle for Biden t-shirts for sale online, which is both funny and serious. Are you getting any sense of whether the polling or anything else indicates that Biden may have a similar problem with those voters to what Clinton had in 2016? We remember that the Green Party candidate, Jill Stein, her vote totals were bigger than the difference between Clinton and Trump in some key swing States.

Juana: What we've seen since the democratic primary came to an end is that former Vice President Joe Biden has been able to consolidate the disparate flanks of the Democratic Party and to unify people behind him. We saw many, almost all of his one-time rivals, very quickly come out and endorse him. They have been spending a lot of time holding fundraisers for him, joining these virtual events that we're all sitting in our houses watching now to get their constituencies to come on board and to support him. The message that they're really all sending is that the choice this year is between former Vice President Joe Biden or four more years of a Donald Trump presidency. I think that that is the message that many of them are sending.

I am talking to a lot of young voters who want to make sure if they're hearing more than just that Joe Biden is a Trump alternative. As what you were saying, they want to see those progressive policies. They want to see him embrace things like a sweeping climate change plan, who express support for Black Lives Matter, and to express support for new legislation on gun control. They do want to see him move further to the left than just being a Trump alternative.

Brian: Listeners, let me invite a specific group of you for our first call-in today with NPR's Juana Summers. If you are age 35 or younger and you attended protests this year, are you ambivalent about Joe Biden? Does the #settleforbiden have meaning for you? Will you be watching the convention speeches next week? What, if anything, do you need to hear to make you cast a ballot? 646-435-7280. 646-435-7280.

Again, first group of callers we're inviting in today, if you are age 35 or younger and you attended protests this year, are you ambivalent about Joe Biden? Does the #settleforbiden just provide a laugh line for you? Does it have meaning for you about any deep-seated ambivalence? Will you be watching the convention speeches next week, or is the convention just something like so establishment and old school that, "Please leave me alone"? What, if anything, do you need to hear if you do watch the convention to make you cast a ballot? 646-435-7280. 646-435-7280, if it sounds like you fit into that category.

You mentioned the vice presidential running mate choice and the implications of that in the context of what we've been talking about, how from the standpoint of your demographics and culture beat at NPR do you see these issues we've been discussing informing Biden's decision on a running mate?

Juana: Yes, that is the big decision that everyone is watching for now as we are just a week away from the start of the Democratic National Convention. What we've heard from the former vice president, of course, is that he plans to name a woman as his running mate.

A number of the women who he has discussed and who others have surmised are on his shortlist are women of color, which is really important this year, in a year with so much activism fueled by women of color, and especially Black women, who have been saying- Black women, who I speak to in democratic politics, that they think it's not just important that Joe Biden picks a woman as his running mate but that he picks a Black woman as Black women have historically been the backbone of the Democratic Party. They have put in the work, and they want to have a seat at the table. They see this as more than just symbolic, they see it as critical to the candidates, understanding of the importance of the Black vote to Democrats, historically.

Brian: What about this, I'm going to throw on at you and see if it resonates with the reporting you've been doing, one public radio journalist I know predicted to me off the air, off the record, behind the scenes, no names, that Biden will pick the Governor of New Mexico, Michelle Lujan Grisham because she has executive experience, congressional experience, she's a Latina from the state next door to Texas, where she could have some Latinx turnout pull and help put Texas in play, and she's described as a moderate, which Biden may also decide is good for his campaign. She's not the first name people are batting around at their dinner tables. Certainly, in the New York area, a lot of people are going to say, Michelle Lujan who? Are you hearing any Michelle Lujan Grisham buzz?

Juana: [chuckles] Look, the one thing I have learned after doing this for about a decade is that I should never play guessing games with who anyone is going to pick as their running mate. She is one of the names that has come up in this conversation. That raises a really interesting point. A lot of people are wondering whether former Vice President Biden will pick someone who is more moderate in their politics or if you will pick someone that's more progressive, more left-leaning in an effort to bring those voters into the fold.

I guess what I'm really curious about is knowing the type of relationship that he and former President Barack Obama had. It sounds to me as though he's looking for someone who he can forge a similar bond. Within the number of the women who are on this list, he has varying degrees of closeness of relationship with. We know, for example, Kamala Harris, whose campaign I covered, she was very close with Joe Biden's late son Beau Biden. They have a tight relationship. He's been spending a lot of time speaking with Elizabeth Warren and consulting with her on policy issues. There are a lot of really interesting women on the shortlist. I'm just glad we're going to have an answer sometime soon so we can stop having the conversation, hypothetically.

Brian: When you say moderate, as opposed to more progressive, what does that actually mean in the context of Joe Biden and this ticket in 2020?

Juana: I mean, we saw this divide play out during the democratic presidential primary, where more left-leaning voters preferred folks like Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, who had forceful endorsements of things like the Green New Deal and climate change were more to the left on that. They were supporters of Medicare For All. These are things that former Vice President Biden has not shown strong support for that have been disappointments to some more liberal Democrats. I think that the question that this raises is whether or not he's going to pick a running mate who might suggest that his platform will tack more to the left rather than being a more centrist platform.

Brian: We have a full board of callers. Let's see what some people have to say. Amanda in Brooklyn, you're on WNYC. Hi, Amanda, thanks a lot for calling in.

Amanda: Hi, good morning. Thanks for having me. I was a Bernie Sanders supporter, and I canvassed and phone-banked, really passionate about the campaign. I felt a little disillusioned when the Dem party pushed towards Biden. It was really difficult, specifically because we were at the beginning of the pandemic and I feel like there was a lot of pressure for Bernie to drop out because of the danger at that point of going to the polls. It just felt really strange for the Medicare For All candidate to be pressured to drop out. Yes, a lot of young voters like myself, who have been a part of protest, feel really disconnected from the Biden campaign.

Brian: Are you going to watch the convention speeches next week? Are you planning to?

Amanda: I didn't plan on it. That's another reason. I feel like there is some back and forth about AOC speaking, and she's someone that really resonates with my generation, and to see someone like John Kasich being put forward but AOC being not immediately welcomed is something that turns me off.

Brian: You could still not vote or vote for a third-party candidate, speaking for yourself?

Amanda: Speaking for myself, I'm a New York voter. I know that the state's going to go blue. I'm not totally committed to voting for Biden, not voting for Trump whatsoever, but I know that my vote is not as significant here as it is in a swing state.

Brian: You might have a different answer if you lived in Wisconsin?

Amanda: Yes. [chuckles]

Brian: [chuckles] Amanda, thank you so much, call us again. She raised a few interesting things there, Juana. One is, who gets a speaking slot at the convention and the Republican Governor of Ohio or the, recently, past Republican Governor of Ohio, John Kasich, might and AOC might not? Do you know what that's about?

Juana: We're still learning a lot more about what is going to be happening in terms of who will speak at this convention. Details have been rolling up over the weekend as well as this week. One thing that we know is that this convention is going to look really different than any convention we've ever seen before. It's been really shrunk down, so there are less speaking slots than in advance. We know that we'll hear speakers across four nights, and we have heard that John Kasich, a Republican, who is a huge critic of President Trump, is expected to speak.

We do not know yet what role, if any, Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez is going to play. I've seen reports in other news outlets that perhaps she will not get a prime speaking spot, which is a thing that a lot of folks have said to me will not be something that folks like Amanda who just called in-- They want to see her have that role and have that platform. We're still waiting to find out.

I have heard from folks that I've spoken to, who are involved in putting together this convention, that one of the things they're really focusing on other than these big high profile speakers is elevating the voices of average Americans to make sure that they are front and center in this conversation because this convention will look so different than any ever has before making sure that it's something that can engage and excite people and make them feel part of it since delegates and lawmakers and the candidates, they can't gather together in person like they had before.

Brian: Let's take another phone call. Livia in Manhattan, you're on WNYC. Hi, Livia.

Livia: Hi, thanks for taking my call.

Brian: Sure. What are you thinking?

Livia: I'm thinking that I'm deeply disappointed in the fact that Biden is our nominee. I was a huge Warren supporter, and then, I became a Bernie supporter when she dropped out. I'm equally frustrated with my friends, most of whom are also on the lefty side of things, who have been very hesitant to volunteer for Biden in any way. I'm feeling like-- I, too, identify as a democratic socialist. I, too, wanted Bernie or Warren, but we all hate Trump a lot, and I wish my friends would join me in phone banking and text thinking, et cetera.

Brian: Do you think there's anything that Biden could still do to bring them in? Would his running mate matter or anything like that?

Livia: Honestly, the running mates that all my friends wanted were either probably Stacey Abrams or Warren. Both of whom don't seem super lucky contenders. I think Kamala Harris won't excite a lot of my friends. People are really worried about her criminal justice background. He needs to really center justice more than he does or even all of his policies, when he talks about climate change, when he talks about healthcare, he's going to be using justice language. Ultimately, the message probably that would be most effective for my friends is don't think about voting for Biden and think about voting against Trump.

Brian: Livia, thank you very much. Let's go right on to Sarah in Philadelphia. Sarah, you're on WNYC. Thanks for calling.

Sarah: Hi, just like Olivia, I believe that it's very-- I'm very happy to see that a lot of my friends are talking more about voting, signing up for voting. I see it a lot on social media now. I'm 19, by the way. This is my first time that a lot of my friends and I are going to be voting in a presidential election. I know, especially in Philadelphia, my vote will count more than my home state, New Jersey, but now residing in Philadelphia that was a swing state last year. I know that a lot of my friends are not showing any ambivalence towards voting for Joe Biden because they know, again, that a vote for anyone else is a vote for Trump.

Brian: How does it feel to be a first-time presidential race voter in the year 2020? Not that you have anything to compare it to because you are never a first-time voter before, but how does it feel?

Sarah: I really hope that my vote-- I want to feel like my vote counts, and obviously, it does. I know where I'm voting will definitely make a difference. I know I'm not voting in a huge swing state, somewhere like Wisconsin or Florida, but it does feel like I'm making a difference if I do vote for someone who's going to make changes rather than keep what's been happening for the past four years.

Brian: I hear you. Of course, Philadelphia or, I should say, Pennsylvania, really is a huge swing state for sure. Sarah, thank you so much. Call us again. Here's another first-time caller, another 19-year old, I think. Alice in New Paltz, you're on WNYC. Hi, Alice.

Alice: Hi, how are you?

Brian: Good. First-time voter?

Alice: Yes, I'm going to be voting for the first time for presidential election, which is really exciting. I think a lot of my friends, they see the DNC as this big organization, they feel pretty isolated from. They see Joe Biden, regardless of being liberal, as this imperialist figure. They can see that in his dealings with Anita Hill and what he supports. If Joe Biden wants to reach younger voters, he's going to have to show that he's willing to make real change in the policies of the United States, especially foreign policies and how we intervene in other countries.

People my age, especially people who are using what's happening now in the world to educate themselves, are seeing more and more how everything's connected and are less excited by people who tout traditional democratic policies and would like to see more radical change, and would like to see him come out for Black Lives Matter. That's the most important thing for him to do immediately, as long as well as picking a Black running mate, especially a Black woman, someone who's been traditionally kept out of democratic politics.

Brian: Do you feel like Biden has not come out explicitly for Black Lives Matter since you put it that way?

Alice: No, I don't think he's shown anywhere near enough support. That should be one of the highest priorities on his platform. What we need now in America is racial justice. We've been needing it since the beginning of this country and for him to come out against racism in America would be revolutionary for someone like him who's been in politics for so long, especially the Democratic Party. We have our own racist past for sure in the party. While I do vote Democrats, I consider myself as a democratic socialist, I will be voting for him because that's my privilege to do so, but I also do understand people my age and maybe marginalized people who just do not feel comfortable voting for someone who has passed policies that have really wreaked havoc on their families or their communities.

Brian: Alice, thank you so much, please call us again. Juan Summers, NPR correspondent, covering demographics and culture, a really interesting set of callers there. There are a few things I could follow up on, but what are you thinking as you heard any of that?

Juana: I want to start off with the last caller and her comments on Black Lives Matter. This is something that I've heard a lot from young activists that I talk to. Look, we know that former Vice President Joe Biden has endorsed policies like banning chokeholds and reforming qualified immunity, but I hear a lot from activists that they don't feel like he's being bold enough as his campaign is trying to navigate how to respond to these urgent and transformational demands that activists are making while he's still trying to maintain his lead over President Trump.

I think that that is something that I'm going to be really curious about in these next less than three months ahead of the election because this conversation isn't dying down. We may not be seeing huge protests in the streets of every major city every night anymore, the urgency of the moment around racial justice and systemic racism and police brutality still exists. I don't think that activists are going to stop holding his feet to the fire on this issue despite the fact that Biden's advisors tell me and other reporters, and I'm sure you as well, that racial justice is at the heart of why he's running.

Brian: Absolutely. Trump is running in part on the argument that protesters are a mob causing violence and leading the Democratic Party to radical policies like defunding the police, they will say, that will make white suburban swing voters unsafe. Biden has to look over here, but he also has to look over there. I'm sure his campaign managers are figuring out where's the most opportunity to maximize turnout, where's the most threat to depress turnout, but you reported a piece last month called 2020 Suburban Voters, who are they? I'll bite. Who are they?

Juana: Suburban voters look really different than they did in the mid-20th century for a bunch of different reasons. There's the change in racial/ethnic makeup, the influx of new immigrants, and the aging of the population. I don't want to go too far in the numbers, but just one thing that really illustrates what this population looks like today. Back in 2000, suburban populations across the country were about 76% white. Fast forward the clock a little bit, and by 2018, that dropped to 68%, a lot of growth among the non-white population in the suburbs.

We know that quite a bit of that growth has been fueled by growth among the Hispanic population, as well as the influx of immigrants to the suburbs that began in the late 1960s. Why that's really all important is the fact that we do hear president Trump speaking directly to these suburban voters and largely suburban white voters. That segment of the electorate is smaller. That population is smaller in the suburbs now. It's a bit of an antiquated approach to talking about the suburbs and that's just not what they look like anymore.

Brian: In fact, speaking of Texas, which I brought up earlier in relation to Michelle Lujan Grisham as a potential vice-presidential running mate, your piece on the suburbs included a reference to the Democrats running political ads in the suburbs of Houston in Hindi and Chinese, what does that tell you?

Juana: It tells you just how much more diverse these districts are. This is something that the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee had never done before. They're running video ads in Hindi and Chinese language in a suburban Houston district that President Trump won by eight points in 2016 and the incumbent is requiring- I'm sorry, is retiring. Now, they see that as a pickup opportunity, and that is just one really tangible example of just how much the suburbs are changing, how the campaign committees and candidates are changing the ways that they message to various communities to meet those changing demographics.

Brian: You did a story recently on a poll by the group NextGen America that found more than half of young people say they lack the resources or knowledge they need to vote by mail. Can you explain what they mean by resources or knowledge?

Juana: Sure. This is a poll that looked at young folks under the age of 35. I had talked to a lot of these young folks too. One thing that I always think about when I think about young voters is the fact that when we're talking about young voters, we're most often also talking about new voters, people who have never participated in this process before. NextGen asked these people, "Do how to get a mail-in ballot or an absentee ballot? Do where to get stamps? Do you have access to a printer to print off your ballot if that's something that you need to do to be able to send it in?"

When you look at it in the aggregate, they found that, oftentimes, they don't have that information, which means that candidates and outside groups like NextGen, which is a democratic-leaning group, and others have to fill in the gap and make sure that these young folks know how to access that information. As a public service, vote.org is a great place to start if you're trying to learn how to navigate this.

It's especially challenging now where, because of the coronavirus pandemic, a lot of people may have concerns about showing up to vote in person. We could see as many as 60 to 70% of all ballots actually cast my mail this year. This is changing the way our elections have ever looked. Just figuring out how to get people, those resources, it's going to be super important if we want to see record turning.

Brian: Yes. Here's a clip from that piece of yours of 22-year-old Mary-Pat Hector from Georgia after the primary there.

Mary-Pat Hector: A lot of Georgia voters are actually afraid to vote by mail. They're afraid to vote by mail. Many people who applied for an absentee that never received that absentee ballot via mail. They're afraid that these same tactics will occur during the November 3rd election. That's just something we can't afford.

Brian: Wait a minute. Juana, isn't it supposed to be President Trump casting doubt on whether a vote by mail is going to produce a full inaccurate result?

Juana: There are a lot of concerns among younger Black and Latino activists that I've spoken to about entrenched voter suppression about making sure that their votes are counted. We know that Black and Brown people in this country face significantly more barriers than their white counterparts to accessing an equitable right to vote. You see efforts from groups like Voto Latino and the NAACP really wanting to make sure that everyone has equitable access. It's a really real concern. I know Mary-Pat Hector told me she plans to show up and go to the polls in person because she wants to make sure that her vote is counted in November.

Brian: Pandemic or no pandemic. Let's get a couple of more callers in here. Jonah in New Brunswick, you're on w NYC. Hi, Jonah.

Jonah: Hey, Brian, how's it going?

Brian: Good. How's it going with you?

Jonah: Doing well, thanks. I called a little bit earlier when you were talking about the convention and Biden. I am still a Bernie supporter, but I will be swallowing my pride and voting for Biden this coming election, and a lot of my friends are in the same boat. Just like AOC said, in any other country, I would not be in the same party as Biden, but seeing as our country operates with two parties, I have to vote for him because the other candidate is not even worth discussing.

Brian: Jonah, thank you very much. Christina in Brooklyn, you're on WNYC. Hi, Christina.

Christina: Hi, Brian, how are you?

Brian: Good, and you?

Christina: I'm good. First off, thank you for everything that you've done for both me and the city during all of this keeping us calm and informed during all of this. I was just calling to comment on your question about settling for Biden, and perhaps I'm being a little Pollyanna here, but I feel like this is a big opportunity, actually. I was a Bernie supporter, but I think with Biden, it can be the first presidency where it's a committee group effort.

I would like nothing more for him to come out and more so, basically, come out with a group of progressive, strong, young, informed, popular new Democrats and have a whole team of just these great leaders. I would like his presidency to be nothing more than a bit of a-- He should be his own press secretary. He comes out and basically just explain the good work that his whole team has been doing. He can do a lot for us internationally to help with our PR there, but the rest of it, he can rely on a team of that we actually want helping and leading our country.

Brian: Christina, thank you so much. Juana Summers from NPR, what about that notion? I feel like we hear this every election cycle from supporters of one candidate or another. Why don't they come out and announce who everybody in their cabinet is going to be, and then, it's going to be this superstar ticket, but they never do?

Juana: No, they don't, but I do think it's been really interesting to watch the task forces that the Biden campaign has formed in partnership with Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, his one-time rival, who, as Congressman Ocasio-Cortez said, maybe in another country, they wouldn't even be in the same political party. Some activists that I've spoken to have really taken to heart that those seem to be well-working groups that have brought in a lot of top tier progressives, who are now in talks with the Biden campaign on all sorts of different policy issues.

To the point of the caller about looking for that governing by committee, it's going to be really interesting to see just what shows up in the platform and if we hear some of those themes start to be articulated by former Vice President Biden as he campaigns in this final rush towards the election.

Brian: Juana Summers covers demographics and culture for NPR. Thanks for all the wisdom and all the reporting and all the insight, really great. Thanks for-

 

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