Harris leads Trump by double digits among young voters: Survey

Younger voters appear to be more enthusiastic about Vice President Harris than former President Trump, according to a new survey, which shows Harris in the lead by double digits.

The recent poll, conducted by CNN and SSRS, found the Democratic presidential nominee leads Trump among voters younger than 35 with 52 percent support to his 40 percent.

The share of younger voters seemingly backing Harris suggests a tighter race than when President Biden was still at the top of the ticket, but the current results signal the race is on track with more typical voting patterns among younger Americans, CNN noted.

The survey also found female voters younger than 35 preferred the vice president over Trump — 53 percent to 39 percent — but male younger voters were more closely divided. The trends seem to have normalized after ranging significantly over the past year, the outlet reported.

Younger voters also tend to lean more Democratic, and pollsters noted a larger number of voters younger than 35 were surveyed than average so the team could have greater confidence in the results of the critical voting group.

The survey found younger voters may still be on the fence about the upcoming election, now less than six weeks away. About 19 percent of voters younger than 35 say they are less than fully set on a choice about the election, while that number is 12 percent among voters 35 and older.

Just about half of younger voters say they are extremely motivated to cast their ballot at all in November or think it’s important they vote, which is lower than older voters, per the poll.

Young Harris supporters in the survey were 10 points more likely to say they feel extremely motivated to vote than young Trump supporters. Younger female voters were also more likely than their male counterparts to say their vote is extremely important.

This younger voting group, however, is highly critical of the most recent presidencies. Roughly 57 percent say the Trump administration was a failure, while 67 percent said the same about Biden.

Harris has better favorability than Trump among younger voters, but she still receives a roughly neutral score. More of her supporters than those backing her GOP rival say the country’s best days lie ahead, instead of having already passed, the survey noted.  

Younger Trump supporters follow the party’s concerns and rank the economy as their top issue. Younger Harris voters break from older Democrats, who say protecting democracy is the most important issue, and choose reproductive rights as the top issue in this election.

The survey was conducted Sept. 19-22 among 2,074 registered voters and an oversample of 624 voters younger than 35. The margins of error for the overall sample and for only younger voters both are 5.6 percentage points.