OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
Younger voters have long been supporters of Democrats, for the most part, but in the age of President Joe Biden, that appears to be changing.
In yet another survey, Biden is losing younger voters under 30 to former President Donald Trump ahead of the 2024 elections.
Fox News published a poll on Sunday that found 51 percent of voters younger than 30 years old plan to vote for Trump in November, while only 45 percent said they intend to support Biden, Newsweek reported, adding that is a sizeable shift from 2020, when Biden easily won the lion’s share of younger voters.
Biden and Trump are both on track to win their respective presidential primaries, potentially setting the stage for a rematch between them in November. However, recent polls have revealed potentially concerning developments for Biden, indicating fissures within the coalition that propelled him to the White House less than four years ago.
The president is currently grappling with questions regarding his declining support among young voters, a demographic that generally leans progressive but has encountered problems with some of Biden’s policies. Many young voters have also voiced disillusionment with the prospect of a Biden-Trump rematch, calling for a fresh generation of leadership.
Newsweek added:
Some young voters have broken with Biden over his staunch support for Israel in its ongoing war with Hamas while arguing he has not gone far enough on Generation Z’s priorities such as climate change and student loan debt. Meanwhile, Biden’s age, 81, has also become a key campaign issue, though the White House says he remains fit to serve. Trump, 77, has also faced questions about his age and whether his conservative policies may not be in line with young voters’ more progressive views.
“Sunday’s Fox News poll also found Biden’s support slipping among black and Hispanic voters. He won 66 percent of black voters, while 28 percent said they would vote for Trump. Meanwhile, Hispanic voters were nearly split, with 49 percent backing Biden and 48 percent saying they plan to vote for Trump,” Newsweek noted further.
But that said, the Fox News poll is just the latest to show younger voters shifting away from Biden and towards Trump.
Trump, for his part, has continued to woo voting blocs that traditionally lean towards Democrats, and he did so again in a column published last fall aimed at younger voters.
The Newsweek op-ed followed a survey indicating Trump’s increasing support from a younger voting demographic that typically leans towards Democrats more than Biden. In his piece, Trump drew comparisons between the outcomes of his economic policies and those of Biden, contending that young voters fared better under his leadership.
“With less than one year to go until Election Day, the polls show that we are beating Joe Biden by wide margins both nationally and in the battleground states—and young people are a major part of the reason why,” Trump began. “A recent NBC News poll found that we are leading Biden 46 percent to 42 percent nationally among voters ages 18 to 34—a clear sign that young Americans are rejecting Joe Biden’s reign of failure, incompetence, and corruption.”
Continuing, he highlighted that throughout his tenure, his policies played a role in establishing the “strongest and most prosperous economy” in world history.
He asserted that, on average, annual incomes increased by approximately $6,000, maintaining low inflation under 2 percent and seeing gas prices averaging around $1.87 per gallon in many regions.
Additionally, he claimed that household wealth reached a historic peak, with the bottom 50 percent of earners experiencing a surge of about 40 percent in their net worth.
“The U.S. economy had never been better for young Americans, but for the past three years, young people have borne the heavy costs of the failed Biden agenda: crippling inflation, soaring prices, skyrocketing interest rates, unaffordable housing, and escalating crime,” Trump said.
