Biden’s Lead Over Trump Plummeting Among Young Voters, Poll Shows

 President Joe Biden’s lead over Donald Trump among the youngest voting bloc has dropped significantly since the 2020 election, according to a Harvard poll released Thursday.

The latest Harvard Institute of Politics (IOP) Youth Poll shows Biden at 50% to Trump’s 37% in a head-to-head matchup among 18- to 29-year-olds. In a five-way race with Robert Kennedy Jr., Jill Stein, and Cornel West factored in, Biden’s lead shrinks even more among young voters as he leads Trump by just seven percentage points with 16% of those surveyed saying they were still undecided.

In the 2020 election, both Gen Z (ages 18-23) and Millennial (ages 24-39) voters favored Biden by 20 percentage points, according to Pew Research.

“Make no mistake, this is a different youth electorate than we saw in 2020 and 2022, and young voters are motivated by different things,” said IOP polling director John Della Volpe.

The Harvard poll shows that young men are responsible for nearly all of Biden’s waning support among the youth vote. While Biden’s advantage among young women surveyed remained relatively the same as in 2020, his lead has fallen by nearly 20 percentage points among young men.

IOP Director Setti D. Warren said that “young people today have clear concerns about where our country is headed.”

“From worries about the economy, foreign policy, immigration, and climate, young people across the country are paying attention and are increasingly prepared to make their voices heard at the ballot box this November,” Warren added.

According to recent polls, the president is also bleeding support from black men and Latinos. A Wall Street Journal poll of the seven battleground states released earlier this month showed Biden’s support among black men has dropped 30 points since 2020.

 

An Axios-Ipsos poll released last week also found that Biden’s lead over Trump among Latinos had dropped from a 29-point advantage to a nine-point advantage. On the issues of the economy and crime, Trump led Biden among Latinos by 22 points and 11 points, respectively.

Biden has cut into Trump’s national polling advantage in recent weeks as the former president leads Biden by less than half a point, according to the RealClearPolitics average as of Thursday afternoon. In a five-way competition, Trump’s lead increases slightly to 1.7 points.