Name: Young voters favor Biden, turning out to vote in record numbers, Harvard poll shows
Brand: bostonherald.com
SKU: bostonherald-com-55
Availability: OnlineOnly

critic

Young voters favor Biden, turning out to vote in record numbers, Harvard poll shows

preview

By | Boston HeraldYoung voter turnout could shape up to historic numbers in the 2020 election according to poll results from Harvard, and more than half of 18- to 29-year-olds support former Vice President Joe Biden.“Young people aren’t just settling for Joe, we’re voting for Joe as well,” said Justin Tseng, chair of the Harvard Public Opinion Project in a Monday morning .Among likely young voters, 63% favor Biden compared to 25% for Trump, according to the of 1,206 young voters organized by students from the Interviews were conducted between Aug. 28 and Sept. 9.Tseng said many young voters started out supporting Biden due to sheer antipathy for Trump, a sentiment which has since changed.Show Caption of“I think there’s been a shift since this spring or the summer, where young voters actually do like Biden and they do like his policies, and I think they also like him as a person as well,” said Tseng.Tseng said anecdotally, Biden’s debate performances have helped as well.Harvard student Kate Gunderson said, “We see that young people do not feel secure in America, they feel like they do not have opportunities, that this isn’t a land of opportunities but rather it’s a land inadequacies.”Gunderson said youth are seeking better mental health care services and a better response to the pandemic, which Biden is offering.Young voters are enthusiastic and are likely to reach historic turnout figures in the 2020 election, according to the poll.Sixty-three percent of poll respondents said they will “definitely be voting,” compared to 47% during this same time in 2016.The 2008 election saw the highest youth turnout since 1984, with 48% of young people turning out to vote, according to the United States Elections Project.“The turnout levels of young people are likely to exceed 2008, and we are ready to make a historical impact on this election,” said Tseng.Mark Gearan, director of the Institute of Politics at Harvard Kennedy School, said there has been unprecedented interest in the election, and young Americans are facing a lifetime of experiences with the pandemic, economic instability and racial reckoning.“Young Americans are seeing firsthand how their government impacts their day-to-day lives and they are ready to make their voice heard in this election,” said Gearan.Young voters are experiencing more anxiety and less joy, excitement and calm than in spring 2019, the poll shows, with more than half of respondents reporting anxiety in the 24 hours prior to taking the survey.Just 35% of people reported experiencing joy, down from 48% in the spring and 36% felt excitement, down from 48% in the spring.Harvard student Jing-Jing Shen said, “I think that this is really another finding that shows how important this moment is as an election, not just politically but also personally and that it affects how we can more forward.”We invite you to use our commenting platform to engage in insightful conversations about issues in our community. We reserve the right at all times to remove any information or materials that are unlawful, threatening, abusive, libelous, defamatory, obscene, vulgar, pornographic, profane, indecent or otherwise objectionable to us, and to disclose any information necessary to satisfy the law, regulation, or government request. We might permanently block any user who abuses these conditions.Sign up for email newslettersFollow UsMost PopularClose

By | Boston HeraldYoung voter turnout could shape up to historic numbers in the 2020 election according to poll results from Harvard, and more than half of 18- to 29-year-olds support former Vice President Joe Biden.“Young people aren’t just settling for Joe, we’re voting for Joe as well,” said Justin Tseng, chair of the Harvard Public Opinion Project in a Monday morning .Among likely young voters, 63% favor Biden compared to 25% for Trump, according to the of 1,206 young voters organized by students from the Interviews were conducted between Aug. 28 and Sept. 9.Tseng said many young voters...

Young voters favor Biden, turning out to vote in record numbers, Harvard poll shows

No article scores yet.

CRITIC REVIEWS

PUBLIC REVIEWS