Younger Voters Fleeing Trump In What May Be "Historic Trouncing:" USA Today/Ipsos Poll
By Dartagnan
Sunday Aug 14, 2016 · 6:01 PM PDT
Read it, Republicans, and weep.:nohead:Slapping-silly90)):missingteWASHINGTON — Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton is consolidating the support of the Millennials who fueled Bernie Sanders' challenge during the primaries, a new USA TODAY/Rock the Vote Poll finds, as Republican Donald Trump heads toward the worst showing among younger voters in modern American history.
Dear GOP: If you thought --in a fleeting moment of optimistic delirium-- that young Americans would opt to live out their futures in a country dictated by the delusional bigotry and prejudices of angry old white men watching
Fox News, then this poll will be a harsh bucket of ice water dumped on your collective heads.
Among those under 35 years of age, the
USA TODAY/Rock The Vote poll shows Hillary Clinton leading Trump, 56% to 20%. The word that USA Today actually uses is
“trouncing.”In the new survey, half of those under 35 say they identify with or lean toward the Democrats; just 20% identify with or lean toward the Republicans. Seventeen percent are independents, and another 12% either identify with another party or don't know.
The article note that this is the same demographic that provided Senator Bernie Sanders with his highest and most intense level of support. And while Millennials are less enthusiastic in their support of Clinton, their attitude towards Trump is unambiguously negative. Probably the worst aspect of this poll (and accompanying survey) for Republicans is the fact that, in explaining their vote choices, young Americans are exhibiting a remarkable degree of savvy and pragmatism:
"I get worried about the bigoted element of our country, and that they will stick with Trump regardless of his stupidity," says Elizabeth Krueger, 31, an actress in New York City who was among those surveyed. She supports Clinton. "She is not going to be a perfect president, but who would be?”
The article notes that if the election results are anywhere close to this poll, Democrats will have won double-digit victories among young Americans in the past three elections—the first time that has happened since 1952. What the article doesn’t discuss, but is worth mentioning, is that party affiliation among younger people, for various reasons,
tends to stay the same well into
their futures.
To put these numbers in perspective,
USA Today notes that Trump is faring worse with young people than Richard Nixon did in his re-election effort of 1972—when thousands of young Americans were still being killed in Vietnam. That is as good of an indicator as any how much the Millennial generation detests Donald Trump and what he represents.
Trump's weakness among younger voters is unprecedented, lower even than the 32% of the vote that the Gallup Organization calculates Richard Nixon received among 18-to-29-year-old voters in 1972, an era of youthful protests against the Vietnam War.
It should be noted that this was an online poll of young adults, and while the article speaks in terms of “voters,” it is not clear that the polling was limited to registered voters, let alone “likely voters.” However, it does provide a valid snapshot of young people’s attitudes towards the two candidates.
This is the first year that the number of Millennials (75 million) has surpassed the number of “Baby Boomers (74 million).
There is indeed a changing of the guard at hand. Ultimately it will be the responsibility of Democratic Party and Democrats everywhere—of all ages-- to ensure that everyone eligible actually comes out to vote.
Rock The Vote, voter registration information is
Here.
The Millennials survey, the third this year, is part of USA TODAY's One Nation initiative, a series of forums across the country on the most important issues of 2016. The online poll of 1,539 adults age 18-34 was taken by Ipsos Public Affairs from Aug. 5-10. It has a credibility interval, akin to the margin of error, of 4.6.