President Joe Biden is still leading former President Donald Trump among young voters, but Trump is whittling away at those numbers, a Harvard Youth Poll released Thursday shows.
According to the poll, Biden came out ahead of Trump by 45% to 37% among voters ages 18-29, with 16% remaining undecided, reported Politico.
The percentage point margin is much smaller than it was at this point in the 2020 election when Biden was ahead of Trump by 23 percentage points.
The nationwide survey, conducted March 14-21, polled 2,010 Americans aged 18 to 29 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.
Biden's margins widened when the pool surveyed was restricted to registered and likely voters, where he came out with a 19-point lead among voters under 30 who are considered likely to cast votes. But that number was still smaller than the 30-point advantage he held among likely young voters four years ago.
Meanwhile, the poll showed Biden maintained wide leads in other areas. He came out ahead of Trump among nonwhite voters by 43 points and led the former president by 33 points with women.
Biden's numbers were also far higher among higher-educated voters, leading Trump by 47 points among likely voters who are college graduates and 23 points with college students.
His margins in other key demographics, however, dwindled, putting him 6 points ahead of Trump among young men and 3 points ahead with white voters.
And with young people who do not have a college degree, the two presumptive party nominees are in a dead heat, according to the poll.
The survey also showed that Trump's younger voters are more enthusiastic about him than Biden's are, with more than 75% of Trump voters saying they enthusiastically support Trump compared to 44% for Biden.
John Della Volpe, polling director for the Harvard Kennedy School Institute of Politics and an expert on polling young voters, said in a statement that the youth electorate is motivated by different things now than younger voters were in 2020 and 2022.
"Economic issues are top of mind; housing is a major concern — and the gap between young men's and young women's political preferences is pronounced," he said.
The survey further showed that Biden is leading by 26 points with likely voters ages 25-29 but only 14 points by those aged 18-24.
Meanwhile, Biden's overall lead grew by 10 points among all young adults if Trump is convicted in any of his criminal trials, said the survey.
Third-party candidates are also threatening to shrink Biden's margins. The poll showed he'd still win the youth vote if Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Cornel West, and Jill Stein remained on the ballot, but only by a few points.
The poll also found that Biden's job approval rating among younger adults is 31%.
The war between Israel and Gaza could also affect Biden's polling numbers, with 51% saying they support a permanent cease-fire in Gaza, and 10% of young people saying they oppose it.
Further, only 20% of younger voters said they believe Israel was justified in its response to the Hamas Oct. 7 incursion, while 32% said it was not justified.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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