At Kamala Harris’s final rally in Michigan on Sunday, she vowed to the crowd to do everything in her power “to end the war in Gaza”. The last-minute appeal to the state’s Arab and Muslim voters comes after polling suggests they are gravitating towards Jill Stein. But, for many, it’s too little, too late. Amid the ongoing US-funded genocide, some previously Democratic voters are now planning to vote third-party or submit a protest vote. “I’m not seeing or have not been seeing what I need from Kamala Harris to convince me to vote for her,” student activist Ziora Ajeroh, a senior at North Carolina A&T State University in Greensboro, said in an interview with The 19th News. Dr Karameh Kuemmerle, a clinical pediatric neurologist in Michigan, told Al Jazeera that she believes: “Any candidate or any political party that has been complicit in providing political cover and material support for a genocide is not worth voting for.”

More than 40 million Gen Z Americans are eligible to vote in the 2024 election, and one of their top voting issues is the war in Gaza, so the decision to vote for Harris or not to vote (or vote third party) is causing arguments between pro-Palestinian voters right up until election day. For Shannon, a 28-year-old whose name has been changed for the sake of anonymity, the decision nearly ended her year-long relationship. Shannon says she knew her girlfriend wasn’t planning on voting for Biden but had assumed she’d vote for Kamala until she saw her reposting videos about not voting on TikTok. “I’m pro-Palestine, but we can’t cast a vote that will save Palestinian lives; we will have to use other means for that,” says Shannon. “But there is a vote that will save Black lives, immigrant lives, LGBTQ lives, and the lives of women in America, so I believe that’s worth casting.”

Once Shannon confronted her girlfriend about not voting, she says it almost led to the demise of their relationship. As a Black woman, Shannon says that watching her white partner choose not to vote in the interests of marginalised groups in America felt like a ‘privilege’ and ‘performative action’ – especially when faced with the prospect of another Trump presidency and Project 2025. She says if she were dating another Black person, she would have felt differently about the disagreement. “I told her I’m not willing to be in a relationship with someone I’m not politically aligned with,” she says. “I would have broken up with her if she didn’t vote for Kamala.” Both Shannon and her partner have now already voted early for Harris.

This year is not the first year that groups of young Americans have chosen to vote third party. Activist and educator Bu Ramiz says this is something that often gets missed in the current conversation. “Third-party candidates, particularly Jill Stein and Claudia and Karina, have had more expansive platforms around justice and equity that are important to me,” they say. “That being said, I’ve also been deeply disappointed and discouraged in the Democrats’ handling of the war in Gaza.” Ramiz is currently based in Connecticut but says she’s previously lived in a red state. “I can’t confidently say that I would vote this way if I were still living in a red state,” they say. “But I’m a Muslim American, so I feel strongly about the treatment of Muslims, and I’m also a Black American, so I do recognise the historic moment that people feel we're in with Kamala potentially getting this position.”

Brian Recker, a former evangelical pastor, now a content creator based in North Carolina, says he knows how it feels to vote third party and then regret it. “I threw my vote away in 2016 voting third party,” he says. “I woke up after Trump won, and I didn’t expect that to happen.” Recker now has a Harris sign and a “free Palestine” sign in front of his house. When he posted a video about his decision to vote for Harris on TikTok, he said he saw bullying from “both sides”. “The Kamala people say ‘a vote for a third party is a vote for Trump’, and I think that’s a reductive way to look at it,” he says. “Then the third party voters say ‘a vote for Kamala is a vote for genocide’, and I don’t think that’s fair either because Trump won’t do away genocide and I’m trying to do harm reduction.”

The Kamala people say ‘a vote for a third party is a vote for Trump’, and I think that’s a reductive way to look at it.

Other Harris voters, like Brooklyn-based activist Jericka Handie are voting for Harris with the hope that she’ll be able to be pushed on Gaza once in office. “If someone is beside me bleeding out and I have two choices: one person who will listen or another who refuses, I’m choosing the one who will listen at minimum,” she says. “I’m putting my vote towards the person with the more progressive agenda, who will at least give me an inch closer to the policy priorities I have in mind.” Despite supporting Harris, Handie says it’s “understandable” that young people feel so fed up with the US government’s policy decisions that they’re choosing to protest vote. “But as a Black woman who has existed in this world where my mere existence has been under threat, I’m not willing to burn the house down with the people that I love in it,” she says.

Handie grew up in Oklahoma but, since moving to New York, has been having election conversations with her friends in New York for the past few months, many of whom are voting third party. “It’s been absolutely heartbreaking having these conversations with those love,” she says. “I feel l like I’m at a point where I’m literally begging for people to see my humanity.” As Trump continues to spew out anti-Black racism, for content creator Christian Divyne, it was his rhetoric around Haitians in Springfield that secured his confidence in his vote for Harris (as opposed to a protest vote). Divyne identifies as a socialist. “I want to use the vote effectively; it’s not a co-sign or an endorsement,” he says. “But I don’t want that community to be more at risk because of my decision.” After all, Angela Davis has said that voting for Harris is about opening space for “those of us who are more radical than Kamala Harris to put anti-capitalist and anti-racist programs forward”.

As the ‘leftist infighting’ discourse plays out online, Divyne says the idea that people choosing not to vote are selfish or don’t care about people in the US is a “chronically online” take. So, too, he says, is the idea that conflicted leftists voting for Harris are supporting the genocide. “People have a reason why they feel conflicted about voting this year, and that’s a valid feeling,” Divyne says. “This conversation would have slowed down if the campaign did one tiny thing to recognise the Gaza protest voters, but they never did, and I think people need to take a moment to understand that everyone is trying to make the best decision possible with the resources they have and the things they care about.”

People have a reason why they feel conflicted about voting this year, and that’s a valid feeling.

With the pre-election day polls showing Harris and Trump neck and neck in battleground states, Divyne says anxiety is fuelling the arguments between pro-Palestinian voters. “People are freaking out and are looking to blame people who they know have similar ideologies to them,” he says. “Everyone sees these other groups of people as unemphatic and as the ones who are really empathetic about others’ issues, but no one individual vote is going to be able to suddenly clear you of guilt.” After election day – no matter the result – leftists will be tasked with building a better coalition on the other side. As activist and author Raquel Willis put it: “It’s never been useful for folks to vote-shame and vote-blame after these elections. How are we going to get past our anger or disappointment about the different decisions made to build the world we need to see?”