Young Voters Warn Biden of 'Scary Election'

Young people who voted for Joe Biden in 2020 say the president should not take their support for granted.

CNN reported that young voters are most concerned about Biden's age — he'll turn 81 next week — the economy, and the Israel-Hamas war.

"We're not expecting them to make change overnight," Kerry Singleton, a senior at Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia, told CNN recently. "But I do think that everyone is willing to hold the administration accountable for some of those promises that were made. If they don't happen, I think it's going to be a scary election."

Young voters certainly helped Biden win in 2020. No place was that more evident than in Georgia, where 2020 exit polls showed that voters 18 to 29 made up 20% of the electorate, CNN reported. Biden defeated Trump in The Peach State by only 11,779 votes out of nearly 5 million cast.

However, a recent New York Times/Siena College poll shows Georgia voters under the age of 30 prefer Trump (46%) to Biden (44%).

In a New York Times opinion column last week, John Della Volpe, director of polling at the Institute of Politics at Harvard Kennedy School, expressed concern about Biden's popularity among voters in their 20s and 30s with the 2024 election a year away.

"[U]nless Gen Zers and millennials believe that Mr. Biden has their backs — and the backs of the Jewish and Palestinian people wherever they live — I fear enough young people won't back him," Della Volpe wrote in his column.

U.S. support of Israel and Ukraine appears to strike a nerve with many young voters.

"If they can fund a war, they can find the money to pay off our student loans," Rachael Carroll, who cast her first vote for president for Biden, told CNN. "The cost of living is way too high right now. I don't think the economy really caters to young people."

Carroll said she doesn't regret her vote for Biden or Vice President Kamala Harris but added she's disappointed by some administration priorities.

"They made a lot of promises going into office and a lot of those have not been met," said Carroll, who added she intends to vote for Biden again, but worries about her age group's lack of enthusiasm for Biden.

"It is for Biden, however, it's against Trump in the same breath," Carroll said. "A lot of times we're voting, unfortunately, for the lesser of two evils."

The latest national polling shows Trump leading Biden in a hypothetical 2024 race for president. Trump currently has a big lead in the GOP primary field, and Biden faces no competition for the Democratic Party's nomination.

Biden campaign spokesman Kevin Munoz said next year's election would offer a stark choice for voters.

"We are working hard to highlight how an extreme MAGA agenda would devastate the financial security, safety, and freedom of young people," Munoz told CNN. "As Democrats did in 2020 and 2022, we will meet younger Americans where they are and earn their votes."

• Report: Biden Losing Black Voter Support
• AP Poll: Biden Losing Dem Approval on Hamas Response