President Joe Biden delivered his State of the Union address to a joint session of the U.S. Congress Thursday evening. The speech came after Super Tuesday primary elections, the results of which indicate former President Donald Trump and Biden will be their respective parties nominees in the general election, according to the Associated Press.
Whereas the State of the Union is typically an opportunity for the President to articulate recently enacted policies and plans, Thursday’s address was more campaign-focused, University of Wisconsin Communications Professor Allison Prasch said.
“This is not a normal State of the Union address,” Prasch said. “And so although Biden does look to the past, consider the present moment and then look to the future, it also was an example of campaign discourse. Biden is attempting to remind the audience of our moment in history, how and why we got to the place that we were, then make an argument of differentiating himself and his presidential campaign against Trump.”
Despite this effort, Biden’s attempts to appeal to younger student voters may have fallen flat, Prasch said.
Biden highlighted how he was able to lessen student debt for 4 million Americans, totaling $138 billion. Through December modifications to Income-Driven Repayment Plans and Public Service Loan Forgiveness, nearly 28,000 Wisconsinites experienced debt relief, according to the U.S. Department of Education.
Still, students tuning in to the SOTU may have perceived the President as not having completely grasped the issue of loan forgiveness, Prasch said.
“I think the way that it was communicated could come off as — not out of touch, necessarily — but I think you hear a lot of students sharing that they don’t necessarily think that the president or the Biden administration fully understands the impact of student loans on their daily lives, and some confusion around the fact of who actually qualifies for various forgiveness programs,” Prasch said.
Additionally, Biden failed to adequately address top-of-mind issues for students, instead opting to focus on domestic and international threats to democracy, Prasch said.
Biden began the address by comparing attacks against democracy seen today in Ukraine to the threat once posed by Adolf Hitler in the 1940s. While these historical comparisons are without a doubt important, student voters are more concerned with issues like climate change and reproductive rights, Prasch said.
“Students that I talk to are less concerned about those historical comparisons and more concerned about the realities of their current moment,” Prasch said. “World War II is a big deal. But what about the climate crisis? What does that mean for the kids that I may want to have, but I feel like I shouldn’t?”
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On the other hand, Biden’s energetic demeanor throughout the speech may have successfully appealed to student voters, Prasch said.
Biden’s 2024 State of the Union script had 80 exclamation points, and more were likely added during the speech, according to the New York Times, in an attempt to present the president as lively, despite concerns about his age.
“For students who were tuning in, I think a really important thing to consider about the SOTU this year was actually what Biden wasn’t necessarily speaking, but the persona that he was embodying,” Prasch said. “He’s emotionally engaged. He did not present himself as a frail, 81-year-old man.”
Though the the State of the Union is mostly designed to address every American, rather than specific demographic groups, the Biden-Harris campaign will likely place more of an emphasis on appealing to student voters on other platforms, Prasch said.
