Harvard Poll: Strong Energy for Dems Among Young Voters

A significantly higher percentage of young Americans say they’ll definitely vote in the elections next week than have done so in the last two midterms, according to a Harvard University Institute of Politics poll released Monday, Bloomberg reported.

The added significance to the apparent surge in young voters is that they are overwhelmingly against President Donald Trump and for Congressional Democrats.

Other results from the survey indicate:

• Four in 10 Americans between the ages 18-29 and who are eligible to cast ballots say they'll “definitely vote” in the upcoming elections. That’s higher than at the same point in the 2010 and 2014 midterms, when 27 percent and 26 percent said they would vote.
• The highest actual midterm turnout among young Americans in recent history was 21 percent in 1986 and in 1994, while overall, midterms typically attract about four in 10 eligible voters.
• Fifty-four percent of  young, self-identified Democrats said they'll “definitely” vote, up three percentage points from April. That’s significantly larger than the 43 percent of young Republicans and 24 percent of young independents who say the same.
• Among likely young voters, Democrats are preferred over Republicans, 66 percent to 32 percent. That gap, though, is 7 percentage points smaller than in April.
• Only 26 percent of young voters approve of Trump, compared to the president’s 44 percent overall approval rating among all adults.
• Fifty-nine percent of young adults say that they'll “never vote for Trump” in 2020. Even among young Republicans, just 37 percent say they are “sure to” vote for him.

The survey of 2,003 Americans ages 18 to 29 was taken Oct. 3-17, and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.2 percentage points.

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