A new well publicized poll from Harvard University is the latest to indicate rising support for former President Trump among the nation’s youngest voters, who traditionally are a key part of the Democratic Party’s base.
President Biden leads his Republican challenger 45%-37% among people ages 18 to 29 in a Harvard Youth Poll released early Thursday by the Harvard Kennedy School Institute of Politics. Sixteen percent of those questioned were undecided.
However, Biden’s 8-point advantage over the former president is much smaller than his 23-point lead over Trump at the same point four years ago in the 2020 election cycle.
The president’s lead over Trump widens to 50%-37% among registered voters under age 30, and to 56%-37% among those likely to cast a ballot in the November election.
However, even Biden’s 19-point margin among likely voters under age 30 is much smaller than his 30-point lead over Trump four years ago.
Additionally, the poll indicates that the president’s 19-point lead over Trump among likely voters shrinks to 13-points when third party and independent candidates are added to the mix.
According to the survey, Biden stands at 43%, Trump 30%, Democrat turned independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. at 8%, Green Party candidate Jill Stein at 4% and independent Cornel West at 2%.
The poll suggests Trump’s made major gains among young male voters.
‘Democrats have lost significant ground with young men,’ the poll’s release highlighted.
The president leads among women by 33 points in the poll, but his advantage among men is just six points. While Biden’s lead among women is nearly identical to four years ago, his advantage among men has plummeted 20 points from this point in the 2020 election cycle.
‘The gap between young men’s and young women’s political preferences is pronounced,’ polling director for the Harvard Kennedy School Institute of Politics John Della Volpe emphasized.
He also cautioned to ‘make no mistake, this is a different youth electorate than we saw in 2020 and 2022.’
The poll also indicated that younger voters supporting Trump are much more enthusiastic about the former president than Biden voters are about the current president. More than three-quarters of those backing Trump said they were enthusiastic about their support, compared to just 44% of Biden backers who said the same thing.
The poll is the latest to indicate an erosion in support for Biden among younger voters. Also alarming for the president is his approval rating among those under 30, standing at just 31% in the new survey.
The Harvard Youth poll of 2,010 Americans ages 18-29 was conducted March 14-21, with an overall sampling error of plus or minus three percentage points.