A new youth poll from the Harvard Kennedy School’s Institute of Politics suggests that President Biden is plummeting in popularity among young Americans, a category where he previously was doing fairly well.
The poll surveyed more than 2,000 U.S. residents between the ages of 18 and 29, was conducted from March 15 to March 30 of this year, and has a margin of error of +/- 2.89 percent.
Among these Americans, only a plurality (41 percent) approve of the job Biden is doing as president, a notable drop from last fall, when 46 percent said they approved. But most interesting is the fact that Biden has dropped 18 points among young voters since this time last year, a significant decline.
Seventy percent of Democratic respondents said they approve of Biden’s job performance, a decline of five points since last fall. Meanwhile, just one-third of Independents say they approve of Biden’s job performance, a six-point drop from Fall 2021, and only about one in ten Republicans approves.
The chief reason respondents gave for their disapproval of Biden’s job performance was is “ineffectiveness” (36 percent). A slight majority (52 percent) said Biden has handled the Covid-19 pandemic well, and 46 percent say they approve of his handling of the crisis in Ukraine. But his biggest pitfall: Just one-third of respondents said Biden has done a good job handling the economy.
The poll also found that, for the upcoming midterm elections, 18-to-29 year olds appear to be on pace to match the turnout for their age group in the 2018 midterms. Thirty-seven percent said they’d “definitely” vote this year. Despite their distaste for Biden, many young people would prefer that Democrats retain control of Congress: Fifty-five percent of likely voters said they want Democrats in charge compared to 34 percent who favor Republican control. Overall, 40 percent of all respondents said they’d like Democrats running Congress, while 28 percent want the GOP in charge.
Another notable finding: Majorities of respondents in both parties — 59 percent of Democrats and 61 percent of Republicans — said they see the opposing party as a “threat to democracy.” And, perhaps most interesting of all, only 38 percent of all young voters think student loans should be cancelled entirely.