CV NEWS FEED // According to a recent New York Times – Siena poll, the majority of young voters do not approve of President Joe Biden’s White House tenure.

The poll, which is dated August 1, found that a minuscule 4% of respondents aged 18 to 29 “strongly approve” of “the way Joe Biden is handling his job as president.” Only 32% of the age group said that they “somewhat approve” of his performance.

Meanwhile, a combined 54% of respondents aged 18 to 29 indicated that they were no fans of the Biden presidency – with 25% saying that they “somewhat disapprove” and 29% answering that they “strongly disapprove.”

The Times also asked respondents a slightly different question: whether they had a favorable opinion of Biden. Four percent of the 18-29 age cohort said that they have a “strongly favorable” view of him – the same percentage that said they “strongly approve” of his performance in office.

However, 44% said had a “somewhat favorable” view of Biden. This is a full 8% more than the proportion of the age category who answered “somewhat approve” to the first question.

A possible explanation for this is that a small but notable percentage of young voters may like Biden as a person but still do not think that he has done a satisfactory job as the nation’s leader. 

Forty-nine percent of 18-to-29-year-olds said they either had a “somewhat” or “strongly unfavorable” opinion of the incumbent president. 

The same poll found that it is not just Biden that young voters view unfavorably. A combined 56% had an unfavorable view of former President Donald Trump, including 45% who said they viewed him “very” unfavorably.

Seventy-two percent of the age category polled indicated that they believed “Trump has committed serious federal crimes.”

Biden and Trump are both currently leading their respective party’s primary fields in the polls, although the current president is leading by a significantly larger margin. 

Trump’s chief Republican rival, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, posted a combined 49% unfavorability rating from poll respondents aged 18-29, tying Biden but faring slightly better than the former president.

Former Vice President Mike Pence garnered a whopping 63% combined unfavorability rating from the age range.

There was one notable exception to the trend. The poll revealed that, by far, the most likable candidate among young voters is Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., Biden’s longshot Democratic challenger. Only 22% of 18-to-29-year-olds had an “unfavorable” view of the attorney, while a combined 45% had a “favorable” view of him. The remainder said they did not know or had never heard of him.

According to the Times, voters between the ages of 18 and 29 are projected to form around 15% of the electorate. 

These younger voters proved crucial to Biden’s victory in 2020, with over 60% of them casting their ballot for him. They were also instrumental to the Democrats’ surprisingly good performance in the 2022 midterm elections, which defied most pundits’ expectations.

In 2020, turnout among voters aged 18 to 29 surged, with half of the demographic voting in that election. This, according to Tufts University’s Tisch College of Civic Life was a “remarkable 11-point increase” from 2016, when only 39% of 18-to-29-year-olds voted.

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