White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre emphasized Monday that young Americans are on President Joe Biden’s side — citing climate change as an example — after a dire battlefield survey found he is 18 to 29 year-olds to former President Donald Trump.
Monday morning, The New York Times, Philadelphia Inquirer and Siena College have released their latest swing state survey in six stateswhich showed Trump leading Biden in five of the six states.
Biden’s support has declined among young voters — and since 2020 among Latino and Black voters, polls show — with Trump beating Biden by 46 to 43 percent among the youngest group of voters.
In a six-way race, Biden still loses to the presumptive Republican nominee, getting 26 percent to Trump’s 30 percent — with independent Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Gobbling up 18 percent of the youth, Green Party hopeful Jill Stein 4 percent, libertarian Lars Mapstead with 1 percent and Cornel West at zero.
Noting that she was required by the Hatch Act to talk politics from the podium, Jean-Pierre added, “But more broadly, we believe that young Americans support the president’s agenda more broadly, right? In an overwhelming way.’
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre emphasized Monday that young Americans are on President Joe Biden’s side after a dire battlefield survey found he lost 18- to 29-year-olds to former President Donald Trump
Voters under 30 in Arizona, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Nevada and Michigan said in a new poll they preferred former President Donald Trump over President Joe Biden — after Democrats eyed the youth vote for decades
“And the president has supported young Americans on many of the issues they care about. Because you said beyond, beyond what is happening in the Middle East,” she told the reporter.
“And so when it comes to climate change, right? That is something he has been very clear about and he has been the most progressive president in that particular area, and he will continue to do so,” Jean-Pierre noted.
Only 2 percent of young people consider climate change their most important issue in the top six states: Arizona, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Nevada and Michigan.
The most important problem for young people, the pollsters found, was the economy.
Jean-Pierre said on Monday that the White House was also on top of that.
“We also understand that as the economy has turned around… we understand that prices are too high and young people in particular feel that way,” she noted.
A bright spot for Biden is that the second most important issue for young people is abortion.
A student walks past demonstrations about the war in Gaza on the MIT campus in Cambridge, Massachusetts. While young people across the country are protesting this issue, only 4 percent of six states said it was their top voting issue
The poll found that Americans view the president more favorably on this issue than Trump, whose appointment of three conservative justices to the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, which gave constitutional protection to the procedure.
Only 4 percent of young people called the current war between Israel and Hamas their most important voting problem.
“We understand how painful this moment is for them,” Jean-Pierre said, pointing to the situation in Gaza.
For decades, Democrats have been eyeing the youth vote, which makes Monday’s numbers incredibly surprising.
In 2020, Biden defeated Trump in the voting bloc by 59 percent to 33 percent, Pew Research Center said.