Meet the 20-year-old Democrat running a multimillion-dollar PAC targeting Gen Z
From his “war room” decorated with political merch and “awesome memes” in his mom’s South Jersey home, David Austin, 20, has raised almost $18 million for his super PAC trying to reach Gen Z voters like him, arguing it takes a young person to communicate with young people.
From his “war room” decorated with political merch and “awesome memes” in his mom’s South Jersey home, David Austin, 20, has raised almost $18 million for his super PAC trying to reach Gen Z voters like him, arguing it takes a young person to communicate with young people.
“You need real young people,” said Austin, the founder of ForwardBlue. “And that’s part of what a lot of these large organizations miss out on. Their staff are significantly older than the generations that they’re trying to reach and they’re relying on historical best practices that may not apply to the way this generation communicates.”
Austin first got involved in politics as a middle school tween, activated by former President Donald Trump’s first campaign almost a decade ago. He says he’s devoted as much time as possible to politics since then, postponing college and deprioritizing typical adolescent activities.
“I spent every minute I could after school volunteering for my state party, building websites for Democrats, doing whatever I could,” he said. “My friends were playing sports, they’re in a band, they’re playing video games for hours and hours after school, and I’m like, 'Hey I’m volunteering to elect Democrats.'”
After high school, Austin worked on the 2022 campaign of Sen. John Fetterman, a Pennsylvania Democrat, before founding ForwardBlue last year, which received an influx of donations around the time Vice President Kamala Harris replaced President Joe Biden as the party’s nominee. Austin says the group now has about 500,000 donors and made 3.5 million voter contacts.
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