CNN senior data reporter Harry Enten broke down on Thursday how Vice President Kamala Harris’ support among young voters is historically lower than past Democratic presidential nominees.
Enten said the Harris campaign will happily “welcome” pop singer Taylor Swift’s endorsement as the vice president’s support among voters aged 18-29 is up by only 15 points against Republican nominee Donald Trump, which is down significantly from President Joe Biden’s 28-point lead among the demographic during the 2020 election. Biden led Trump among the young demographic by 7 points before he dropped out of the race on July 21.
“Let’s just point out something that I’ve been noting all along throughout this campaign, and that is the underperformance that both Joe Biden and now even Kamala Harris has among young voters,” Enten said. “This is the Democrat versus Trump margin age 18 to 29, or under the age of 30. You go back 4 years ago at this point, look, Joe Biden had a 28 point advantage over Donald Trump. Now you look when Joe Biden dropped out of the race, he was up by just 7 points. Now, Kamala Harris has improved on Joe Biden’s standing, but look at this. She’s only up by 15 points. That is significantly less than Joe Biden was up at this point among the youngest voters in our electorate.”
“So, Kamala Harris will absolutely welcome in the support of Taylor Swift if she can move young voters at all because the bottom line is Kamala Harris is in fact not doing as well among young voters as you might expect a Democrat to necessarily be doing based upon history,” Enten continued.
CNN’s Harry Enten Breaks Down Kamala Harris’ ‘Underperformance’ With Young Voters pic.twitter.com/oE5iujMlfQ
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Democrats still hold a lead among Republicans in the number of active registered voters in swing states, though those numbers have significantly dropped from September 2020 to September 2024, according to data Enten displayed. In Pennsylvania, Democrats’ lead fell from 559,000 in September 2020 to 169,000 in 2024, while in North Carolina it dropped from 415,000 to 128,000. (RELATED: CNN’s Harry Enten Sounds Alarm About Harris’ Vanishing Lead In ‘Very Pivotal’ Swing State)
Enten said these numbers indicated how Republicans have done “a significantly better job” of registering voters and persuading them to switch from being a Democrat to a Republican in the last four years.
“So the bottomline is, Republicans have been doing a significantly better job of registering voters than Democrats have been doing over the last 4 years, and getting folks to switch over from Democratic registration to Republican registration,” Enten said. “So yeah, Kamala Harris would definitely welcome the idea if Taylor Swift could bring in some more young voters, Democratic-leaning voters in the electorate, because the bottom line is, Republicans have been doing a heck of a better job registering voters than Democrats have over the last 4 years.”
The data reporter said that 337,826 users clicked on Swift’s Instagram post link to Vote.Gov as of Wednesday afternoon, meaning many of those viewers may be new in the electorate.
“Democrats will take any of the help, because the bottomline is this election is so close, any small impact could be all the impact,” Enten concluded.
Swift urged her fans to register to vote on Wednesday as she accepted her award at MTV’s 2024 Video Music Awards.
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