A recent national poll suggests that President Biden is struggling to maintain support among younger voters, a crucial demographic within the Democratic Party’s base. The NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist National Poll, released on Thursday, indicates a tight race between Biden and former President Trump.
One significant factor contributing to this close contest is Biden’s weakening support among younger voters. Four years ago, Biden won this group by more than 20 percentage points. Now the poll shows that Biden’s performance has deteriorated significantly among voters younger than 45 and among those aged 18 to 29.
Lee Miringoff, director of the Marist College Institute for Public Opinion, pointed out that younger voters feel disconnected from Biden and are concerned about the cost of living. “They’re seeing the economy as a lot of other voters do — laying it on Biden’s doorstep at the moment,” Miringoff told.
The new poll highlights a rise in support for Trump among the nation’s youngest voters. A Harvard Youth Poll released last month by the Harvard Kennedy School Institute of Politics showed Biden’s numbers are several times less than his 23-point advantage at the same point in the 2020 election cycle.
The Harvard poll indicated that Trump has made substantial gains among young male voters, with the poll release noting that “Democrats have lost significant ground with young men.”
According to the Marist poll, less than a quarter of younger voters approve of Biden’s job performance. More than six in ten hold an unfavorable opinion of him. Nonetheless, only 54% of Generation Z and millennials surveyed said they have definitively decided whom they will vote for in the presidential election.
In response to these challenges, the Biden campaign launched “Students for Biden-Harris” in March, aiming to build a large volunteer base of younger supporters through various student-run groups nationwide. Nevertheless, Biden has lost a significant amount of trust among Americans, so his chances of regaining his rating are quite low.
