Politics

Young Voters Are Abandoning Biden — Here’s Why

REUTERS/Ints Kalnins

Daily Caller News Foundation logo
Max Keating Contributor
Font Size:
  • President Joe Biden had a 30% advantage among under-30 voters in 2020, but that support has evaporated.
  • Now Biden’s approval rating is lower in the youth demographic than his overall rate.
  • Polls suggest that the economy, Biden’s inability to deliver on campaign promises and general political frustration among youth are to blame.

Young voters were President Joe Biden’s most reliable supporters in 2020 but many have now soured on the president for three key reasons as he approaches the midpoint of his first term, numerous polls indicate.

Around 60% of 18- to 29-year-old voters backed Biden in 2020, making this younger group of Americans the age demographic he carried the most comfortably, but now Biden’s approval rating among younger voters is worse than his overall rate — 37% versus 38% — according to FiveThirtyEight. This decline in support is likely due to a perceived mishandling of the economy, a failure to fulfill campaign promises and general political disillusionment, recent polling data shows.

Young voters almost unanimously do not want Biden to run again in 2024, with 94% of voters age 18-29 hoping that someone else is at the top of the Democratic ticket, according to one New York Times poll.

The economy is top of mind for younger voters as here, too, they have soured on Biden even more dramatically than the general electorate. Last week’s YouGov/The Economist survey showed that just 34% of Americans aged 18 to 29 approved of the way Biden was handling jobs and the economy, less than the 37% of voters overall.

“Like the rest of Americans, young voters are also suffering the inflationary consequences of the Biden administration’s policies,” Heritage Action Executive Director Jessica Anderson told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “Aside from gas and groceries, young Americans are increasingly worried about how they are going to take their next steps into adulthood by buying a home, and some are worried about future job prospects if we head into a recession.”

Younger voters have also been let down by Biden’s inability to fulfill various campaign promises. Harvard’s spring 2022 poll of 18- to 29-year-olds found that of those that did not approve of Biden’s performance, the second largest reason behind “ineffectiveness” — which encompasses poor stewardship of the economy — was “not following through on campaign promises.”

“President Biden has made a lot of empty promises and the only policies he and Congress have been able to deliver on have made America weaker at home and abroad,” Anderson told the DCNF. “This administration has taken away key economic opportunities for Americans and fostered a woke and divisive culture that empowers groupthink. It is unsurprising that these tactics are driving younger voters away from their party and candidates.”

Specifically, Biden’s as-yet unfulfilled promise to forgive some student loan debt is a priority for many younger voters, Dakota Hall, executive director for the Alliance for Youth Action, told Vox.

The Biden administration has been considering forgiving student loan debt, which some speculate might be a ploy to win back support in this younger demographic.

“Biden thinks he can just buy off younger voters with student loan forgiveness, but he will only be making inflation worse and young voters will see through this election-year gimmick and pay more in the long run,” Anderson told the DCNF.

American youth are also increasingly disillusioned with politics in general. Harvard’s spring polling found that fully 57% of young people agreed with statements that “politics today are no longer able to meet the challenges our country is facing,” and that “the government does not represent the America I love.” (RELATED: The White House Wants To Redefine Recession Ahead Of Possibly Disastrous GDP Report)

The emergent cross-partisan “frustration that young people have about government in general” is likely dampening Biden’s favorability ratings among youth, Harvard’s John Della Volpe, who consulted for the Biden campaign, told FiveThirtyEight.

Neither the Young Democrats of America nor the College Democrats of America responded to the DCNF’s request for comment.

All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

PREMIUM ARTICLE: Subscribe To Keep Reading

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign Up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
BENEFITS READERS PASS PATRIOTS FOUNDERS
Daily and Breaking Newsletters
Daily Caller Shows
Ad Free Experience
Exclusive Articles
Custom Newsletters
Editor Daily Rundown
Behind The Scenes Coverage
Award Winning Documentaries
Patriot War Room
Patriot Live Chat
Exclusive Events
Gold Membership Card
Tucker Mug

What does Founders Club include?

Tucker Mug and Membership Card
Founders

Readers,

Instead of sucking up to the political and corporate powers that dominate America, The Daily Caller is fighting for you — our readers. We humbly ask you to consider joining us in this fight.

Now that millions of readers are rejecting the increasingly biased and even corrupt corporate media and joining us daily, there are powerful forces lined up to stop us: the old guard of the news media hopes to marginalize us; the big corporate ad agencies want to deprive us of revenue and put us out of business; senators threaten to have our reporters arrested for asking simple questions; the big tech platforms want to limit our ability to communicate with you; and the political party establishments feel threatened by our independence.

We don't complain -- we can't stand complainers -- but we do call it how we see it. We have a fight on our hands, and it's intense. We need your help to smash through the big tech, big media and big government blockade.

We're the insurgent outsiders for a reason: our deep-dive investigations hold the powerful to account. Our original videos undermine their narratives on a daily basis. Even our insistence on having fun infuriates them -- because we won’t bend the knee to political correctness.

One reason we stand apart is because we are not afraid to say we love America. We love her with every fiber of our being, and we think she's worth saving from today’s craziness.

Help us save her.

A second reason we stand out is the sheer number of honest responsible reporters we have helped train. We have trained so many solid reporters that they now hold prominent positions at publications across the political spectrum. Hear a rare reasonable voice at a place like CNN? There’s a good chance they were trained at Daily Caller. Same goes for the numerous Daily Caller alumni dominating the news coverage at outlets such as Fox News, Newsmax, Daily Wire and many others.

Simply put, America needs solid reporters fighting to tell the truth or we will never have honest elections or a fair system. We are working tirelessly to make that happen and we are making a difference.

Since 2010, The Daily Caller has grown immensely. We're in the halls of Congress. We're in the Oval Office. And we're in up to 20 million homes every single month. That's 20 million Americans like you who are impossible to ignore.

We can overcome the forces lined up against all of us. This is an important mission but we can’t do it unless you — the everyday Americans forgotten by the establishment — have our back.

Please consider becoming a Daily Caller Patriot today, and help us keep doing work that holds politicians, corporations and other leaders accountable. Help us thumb our noses at political correctness. Help us train a new generation of news reporters who will actually tell the truth. And help us remind Americans everywhere that there are millions of us who remain clear-eyed about our country's greatness.

In return for membership, Daily Caller Patriots will be able to read The Daily Caller without any of the ads that we have long used to support our mission. We know the ads drive you crazy. They drive us crazy too. But we need revenue to keep the fight going. If you join us, we will cut out the ads for you and put every Lincoln-headed cent we earn into amplifying our voice, training even more solid reporters, and giving you the ad-free experience and lightning fast website you deserve.

Patriots will also be eligible for Patriots Only content, newsletters, chats and live events with our reporters and editors. It's simple: welcome us into your lives, and we'll welcome you into ours.

We can save America together.

Become a Daily Caller Patriot today.

Signature

Neil Patel