A New York Times/Siena College survey released Monday showed Biden virtually tied with Trump among voters younger than 30, with 30 percent backing Biden and 29 percent backing Trump. Thirty-four percent said they backed independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
The latest data is surprising, given Biden’s victory over Trump among young voters in 2020. According to AP VoteCast, Biden won 61 percent of voters between the ages of 18 and 29.
The polling comes as Biden has faced backlash among young voters and activists for his handling of the Israel-Hamas war.
“The polls for the last several years on young voters have missed the mark every single time. We just had an election, and we were told right before the election that young people were probably not going to vote as overwhelmingly Democratic or turn out at the rates they did,” said Cristina Tzintzún Ramirez, president of the youth voting organization NextGen America.
“I don’t think this poll is reflective of the political reality that has played out every single election post-2016,” she added.
Reinish predicted young voters will ultimately choose Biden over Trump again, assuming Trump gets the nomination, pointing to their stances on climate change, abortion and democracy.
An AP-NORC poll released in August found that 77 percent of voters younger than 45 said they thought Biden was too old to serve as president effectively. Among Democrats aged 18 to 29 years old, 76 percent said they believed Biden was too old to run for president.
“President Biden being 80 years old does not matter to me how I live my life,” said Lobel, who is 19 and voting in his first presidential election next year. “Him investing in my education, in my future as a person who’s going to inherit this world, this economy, this climate, this matters to me.”
Article mentioned by Rising, The Hill:
Bidenworld MELTDOWN, Trump Obliterates POTUS In New National Poll: Rising [12:47 | Nov 19, 2023 |Former Press Secretary for the First Lady Jill Biden Michael LaRosa | The Hill]