Harvard Poll: Harris' Lead With Youngest Voters Less Than Half of Biden's

Vice President Kamala Harris is lagging behind President Joe Biden among young voters nationwide ahead of the 2024 presidential election in just under two weeks, according to the latest youth poll from Harvard University.

The Harvard Youth Poll released on Friday shows Harris leading Trump by nine percentage points among voters ages 18-29 in the battleground states of Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Nevada, and Wisconsin. 

The survey asked voters across the country ages 18-29 who they would vote for if the presidential election were held today among Harris, Trump, Green Party candidate Jill Stein, independent candidate Cornel West, and Libertarian Party candidate Chase Oliver.

• Harris: 47% of all voters, 53% of registered voters, 60% of likely voters, and 50% of registered voters in battleground states.
• Trump: 31% of all voters, 33% of registered voters, 32% of likely voters, and 41% of registered voters in battleground states.
• Stein: 2% of all voters, 2% of registered voters, 2% of likely voters, and 1% of registered voters in battleground states.
• West: 1% of all voters, 1% of registered voters, 1% of likely voters, and 0% of registered voters in battleground states.
• Oliver: 1% of all voters, 1% of registered voters, 1% of likely voters, and 1% of registered voters in battleground states.
• Don’t know: 15% of all voters, 9% of registered voters, 4% of likely voters, and 6% of registered voters in battleground states.

In the 2020 election, Biden beat Trump among young voters by 20-25 percentage points in each of those battleground states except for Georgia, where Biden won young voters by 13 points.

"Young Americans' attitudes, concerns, and candidate preferences come through loud and clear in our latest Harvard Youth Poll," Harvard Kennedy School Institute of Politics Director Setti Warren said in a statement. "As we approach the final sprint to Election Day, we see that young people across the country are continuing to pay attention and are increasingly prepared to make their voices heard."

John Della Volpe, IOP Polling Director, added: "The social dynamic of youth voting has never been more clear: when young Americans believe their friends will vote, they're nearly two and a half times more likely to cast a ballot themselves. It’s peer influence, not just politics, that could determine youth turnout this year—and ultimately who becomes the next president."

The Harvard Youth Poll surveyed 2,001 voters ages 18-29 across the country from Oct. 3-14, 2024 with a margin of error of +/- 2.64 percentage points in total, +/- 3.05 percentage points for registered voters, and +/- 3.61 percentage points for likely voters.

• NY Times/Siena College Poll: Trump, Harris Deadlocked
• TIPP Daily Poll: Harris Up by 2, in Statistical Tie