A poll of young people in several key battleground states released Thursday found Vice President Harris' lead over former President Trump is 12 points higher than President Biden's lead in July.
a US News/Generation Lab StudyThe poll, conducted Aug. 25-Sept. 3, found Harris leading Trump by 30 points (65 percent to 35 percent) among adults ages 18-34 in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Ohio.
That's a huge expansion of Biden's 18-point lead over Trump in a July poll conducted after the first presidential debate, when Biden led Trump 59 percent to 41 percent among the same demographic.
“Our polling shows that young Americans support Vice President Harris. [Minnesota] Governor [Tim] “In several of the swing battleground states, voters support Walz in large numbers and plan to show their support at the polls in November,” U.S. News executive managing director and vice president Daphna Linzer said in a press release.
“While national polls show a close race that either candidate could win, there is a clear uptick in support for the Democratic candidate among this important voting group,” Linzer continued.
Harris receives the most support from young voters in Michigan (71%), Pennsylvania (70%) and Nevada (66%), but is less popular with them in Georgia (63%), Ohio (62%), Wisconsin (62%) and Arizona (61%).
Harris also leads among young women (70%) and, by a narrow margin, among young men (60%).
She has the support of 94 percent of young Democrats, while Trump has the support of 86 percent of young Republicans, and among independents, 70 percent support Harris while 30 percent support Trump.
“Harris was already ahead with the young vote when Biden dropped out, but now she's approaching Obama's level with the young vote,” Generation Lab CEO Cyrus Beschloss told U.S. News & World Report.
“The question is how well she can defy electoral gravity and actually get her supporters to turn out to vote,” Beschloss continued.
Recent polls have shown that voters are more willing to support their preferred candidate than they were in the July 2024 polls.
Currently, 70 percent of young voters in these states are very enthusiastic (30 percent) or quite enthusiastic (40 percent), compared to 14 percent who were very enthusiastic and 37 percent who were quite enthusiastic in July.
A total of 30% of people say they currently have either made a minimal resolution (15%) or no resolution (15%), compared with 49% who said the same in July.
The poll was conducted online with approximately 2,000 respondents and has a margin of error of 2.2 percentage points.
