Young Democrat voters are not significantly more motivated to vote for Vice President Kamala Harris than the whole of the Democrat Party, CNN analyst Harry Enten said Wednesday.
The finding contradicts the Harris campaign’s claim that it has a path to victory due to Harris’s unique ability to galvanize the young vote, according to a memo released Wednesday.
The data does not appear to support the campaign’s claim.
Only 42 percent of young Democrats between the ages of 18-29 are more motivated to vote after President Joe Biden’s exit, a CBS News/YouGov poll found. That is in contrast to the 39 percent of Democrats of all ages, just a three-point difference.
“It’s just not there in the numbers despite all the internet memes that are going around,” Enten said on CNN.
Brat Summer or not, I looked into whether Harris has unique appeal to young voters. She doesn't. She's doing much worse against Trump than Biden did in 2020.
— (((Harry Enten))) (@ForecasterEnten) July 24, 2024
Moreover, young Democrats are NOT disproportionately more motivated to vote than other Democrats because of Biden's exit pic.twitter.com/WpH5Sf4vPE
Former President Donald Trump, a unique candidate, is perhaps one of the reasons why Harris is struggling to attract young voters. In 2024, young voters are split (49-49 percent) between identifying as Republicans and Democrats. In 2020, according to Pew Research, 56 percent of young voters identified as Democrats, while 39 percent identified as Republicans.
“When we say that Harris is doing worse than Biden, it’s not that she’s uniquely bad,” Enten said. “It’s rather, she’s fighting uphill. She’s trying to fight against a wave that is going against the Democrats among young voters.”
Biden won the young vote — under the age of 35 — by 21 points in 2020. In contrast, Harris underperforms Biden, according to CNN polling from Sunday. She only holds a nine-point lead, 12 points worse than Biden’s performance.Enten continued:
You may make the argument that was better than Biden was doing before he got out [of the race], but compared to that democratic baseline, where Democrats have, historically, in presidential elections, at least this century, been carrying that young vote by twenty or more percentage, she is way down from that.
“So, if this is unique support among young voters, I would like to know what non-unique support is,” he said.
Wendell Husebo is a political reporter with Breitbart News and a former RNC War Room Analyst. He is the author of Politics of Slave Morality. Follow Wendell on “X” @WendellHusebø or on Truth Social @WendellHusebo.
