Biden's standing with young voters gets scathing assessment in NY Times: 'Many young Democrats don't like him'
'Virtually every poll shows a close race between Mr. Biden and Mr. Trump among young voters,' Nate Cohn wrote
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The New York Times warned its audience that President Biden's deep unpopularity with young voters — even in a potential rematch with former President Donald Trump — is a clear signal that should trouble his supporters.
"Virtually every poll shows a close race between Mr. Biden and Mr. Trump among young voters," New York Times chief political analyst Nate Cohn wrote, not just recent New York Times polling.
"To many of our readers and others, it’s a little hard to believe — so hard to believe that it seems to them the polls are flat-out wrong," Cohn wrote.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}'BAD OMEN' FOR BIDEN THAT MOST DEMOCRATIC VOTERS UNHAPPY WITH ECONOMY: REPORT
The New York Times warned its audience that President Joe Biden's deep unpopularity with young voters — even in a potential rematch with former President Donald Trump — is a clear signal that should trouble his supporters. (Getty Images)
"We see no evidence of that," Cohn added. "In our polling, the problem for Mr. Biden isn’t too few young Democrats. It’s that many young Democrats don’t like him."
Cohen broke down the numbers on Biden's low approval rating even within his own party. "Mr. Biden has just a 76-20 lead among young voters either registered as Democrats or who have previously voted in a Democratic primary," he wrote. "It’s just a 69-24 lead among young nonwhite Democrats. The dissent exists among self-identified Democrats, Democratic-leaners, Biden ’20 voters, and so on."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"This kind of intraparty dissent is rare but not without precedent in our polling," Cohn wrote. "I’ve seen it in our congressional polls of highly educated suburbs full of Romney-Clinton voters. And I’ve seen it once before in a statewide presidential race: our final polls in 2016, when Mr. Trump suddenly surged to obtain 30 percent of white working-class registered Democrats. It was hard to believe, but it was fairly easy to explain and it raised the serious possibility of a Trump win."
Cohn argued that Biden's prevailing weakness among young voters was "fairly straightforward to explain."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"Virtually every poll shows a close race between Mr. Biden and Mr. Trump among young voters," Cohn wrote, not just recent New York Times polling. (Left: (Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images), Right: (Photo by BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP via Getty Images))
"Young voters are by far the likeliest to say he’s just too old to be an effective president," he wrote. "Many are upset about his handling of the Israel-Hamas war."
But Biden's unpopularity with young voters long predates the 2024 presidential race, Cohn wrote.
"And all of this is against the backdrop of Mr. Biden’s longstanding weakness among young voters, who weren’t enthusiastic about him in 2020, and Mr. Trump’s gains among nonwhite voters, who are disproportionately young," he wrote.
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