{"id":720,"date":"2026-08-27T09:07:43","date_gmt":"2026-08-27T09:07:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/frontierhousingreport.com\/?p=720"},"modified":"2026-08-27T09:07:43","modified_gmt":"2026-08-27T09:07:43","slug":"are-the-college-democrats-a-bellwether-for-2028","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/frontierhousingreport.com\/?p=720","title":{"rendered":"Are the College Democrats a Bellwether for 2028?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\n

Last month, the College Democrats of America held their largest convention in over a decade in Washington, D.C. Like their College Republican counterparts, College Democrats are often thought of as Democratic Party mouthpieces, mere conduits used to pass down Democratic National Committee messaging to college students.<\/p>\n

Read more How Trump Is Destroying Detroit<\/a><\/p>\n

But the College Dems\u2019 reputation as wannabe apparatchiks vying for lanyard-wielding roles in Washington has faded. The CDA once hosted party moderates like Hillary Clinton and Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA), who firmly stated nearly a decade ago that \u201cthe Democratic Party is not a socialist party.\u201d But new student leaders convened in a strikingly different environment this summer.<\/p>\n

More from Keyian Vafai<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

As the country closes in on early voting and the November elections, there\u2019s a major shift under way in the Democratic Party from New York to Michigan to Colorado. Many voters have moved away from Democrats who take money from AIPAC, corporations, or data centers in favor of progressives and democratic socialists prioritizing universal health care, affordability, and an end to military support for Israel. And that shift is also happening in the CDA.<\/p>\n

The story of the new look College Democrats of America begins with Gaza. The organization took a firm stance in support of the 2024 college encampment protests, releasing a statement calling Israel\u2019s assault on Gaza \u201cdestructive, genocidal, and unjust.\u201d \u201cWe tapped into a lot of energy,\u201d CDA President Sohali Vaddula, a rising senior at Brown University, said. \u201cThe statement resonated with how our members felt about the Biden administration, how the party\u2019s not going in the right direction, and genuinely how young people are being silenced, quite literally and figuratively.\u201d<\/p>\n

Students gave headliners, including Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) and Georgia state Rep. Ruwa Romman, the Palestinian American who was denied a slot to speak at the 2024 DNC convention, uproarious standing ovations with every mention of AIPAC and Israel\u2019s genocide in Gaza. Three of the four House members invited to the convention\u2014Reps. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) Jason Crow (D-CO), and John Mannion (D-NY)\u2014<\/strong>voted yes on outgoing Rep. Thomas Massie\u2019s (R-KY) recent amendment to cut off aid to Israel. Rep. James Walkinshaw (D-VA) did not, but told the Prospect<\/em> that he supports cutting military aid and that \u201cthere are better ways of conditioning support for Israel, which I believe we should do.\u201d<\/p>\n

The party\u2019s rising leaders didn\u2019t mince words on Israel\u2019s influence in American politics. Melat Kiros came to town fresh off her upset primary victory over Rep. Diana DeGette, a 30-year incumbent and staunch supporter of Israel in Colorado\u2019s First Congressional District. Kiros, a member of the Democratic Socialists of America, was initially inspired after she experienced the student encampments. \u201cIt\u2019s frankly the thing that brought me back into the political sphere,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Kiros\u2019s candidacy prompted the highest youth turnout since 2020. The New York Democratic primary this spring had a high youth turnout\u2014even though it did not match the historic surge seen in New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani\u2019s stunning Democratic mayoral primary victory in 2025. Elsewhere, turnout among young people continued to improve. In Michigan counties with more than 30 percent of young adults, aged 18 to 34, Abdul El-Sayed won the Democratic Senate primary over Haley Stevens by 24 percentage points, according to a Washington Post<\/em> postmortem.<\/p>\n

Gun control activist David Hogg, founder of Leaders We Deserve, a progressive youth-oriented PAC, delivered a scathing rebuke of Democratic Party elites to the packed convention hall. \u201cWe need to make AIPAC just like the NRA: not relevant anymore,\u201d he said. Hogg, a survivor of the horrific mass shooting in 2018 at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, also deplored corporate influence in politics, the aging members of Congress, and moderate Democrats.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur party should not be one that says, \u2018Well, you know, it\u2019s really bad when all these kids are dying from gun violence,\u2019\u201d Hogg roared, \u201cbut acts like they can\u2019t tell what side of the 50-yard line they\u2019re on, when there\u2019s active genocide being committed with arms from the United States. I believe for much of our lives our party\u2014especially in the last decade\u2014has become one that rewards cowardice and punishes courage.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hasan Piker, a controversial streamer and democratic socialist, also delivered a keynote address. Moderate Democrats have criticized him for his positions on Israel, while progressives like Michigan\u2019s El-Sayed, New York\u2019s Claire Valdez and Darializa Avila Chevalier, Philadelphia\u2019s Chris Rabb, and others all saw historic victories with Piker campaigning alongside them.<\/p>\n

Read more The House Always Wins, Even on House-less Kalshi<\/a><\/p>\n

Piker told the Prospect<\/em> that he had not been aware of the CDA\u2019s existence until he was invited to the convention. \u201cIf they\u2019re asking me to deliver a speech at their convention, that means they\u2019re taking a hard stance on the issue of Palestine, on the issue of American militarism, on health care,\u201d he said. \u201cThis is maybe a little bit of a rebellion for them to show the Democratic Party where they stand on these issues.\u201d<\/p>\n

Students echoed their frustration with money in politics throughout the weekend. Dallas Mesec, 21, a student at St. Lawrence University, said seeking a \u201cdivorce between business and politics\u201d was his top priority. \u201cThe United States has lost its identity. It is not a national federation anymore. It is a corporatocracy, a kleptocracy, an oligarchy. An idiocracy, if you would.\u201d<\/p>\n

The old College Democrats might have shied away from these positions. The group had traditionally mirrored DNC policy preferences and, until 2008, the group had a DNC liaison. Vaddula, a former High School Democrats member, remembered students telling her not to bother with the College Dems when she entered college in 2023.<\/p>\n

But that started to change after 2024. \u201cCollege Democrats shouldn\u2019t just be this entity that takes the party message and tells it to people on the floor, preaching to them,\u201d Sunjay Muralitharan, the former CDA president who helped guide that shift, told the Prospect<\/em>. \u201cYou should be the ones who are on the ground, listening, and then taking that up.\u201d Since early 2025, the CDA has added over 120 chapters and now has more than 500 on campuses around the country.<\/p>\n

The group gained credibility by partnering directly with organizations like Students Rise Up, to challenge the Trump administration\u2019s authoritarian attacks on higher education. They joined forces with Sunrise Movement, which, Vaddula says, \u201cbrought in a lot of the lefty crowd,\u201d and helped the CDA shake its reputation for \u201conly support[ing] machine Democrats and not endorsing [challengers] in the primaries.\u201d<\/p>\n

Where college students congregate, age inevitably emerges as a prime topic of debate, with students railing against a moribund gerontocracy, and strongly encouraging one another to run for higher office. \u201cThe thing about running as a young candidate is that a lot of the traditional routes aren\u2019t available to us,\u201d said Kiros, the Colorado Democratic primary winner. \u201cWhen you\u2019re older, you\u2019re more likely to know rich people. You\u2019re more likely to have savings and be able to fund your campaign,\u201d she said, noting that youth-led organizations like the College Dems were necessary not just to help new candidates raise money but to organize neighbors and peers to provide volunteer support.<\/p>\n

I conducted an unofficial straw poll, asking 52 delegates who they\u2019d like to see as the 2028 Democratic nominee for president. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) led the pack, followed by Gov. Andy Beshear (D-KY), Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-GA), \u201cUndecided,\u201d and former Biden transportation secretary Pete Buttigieg, who ran for president in 2020. The top candidates, with the exception of former Vice President Kamala Harris, were under 50 years old.<\/p>\n