By Bill Wilson
President Biden’s failures with young voters goes far beyond the crippling double-digit declines in support he is suffering across battleground states compared to 2020. Democrats are utterly failing to secure loyalty from Gen Z leading into the 2024 election and are facing lower approval ratings from Zoomers than they are from slightly older Millennials.
Gen Z voters – ages 18 to 24 – are emerging into a chaotic economy fraught with crippling inflation, waves of illegal immigration, rising crime, and an unstable world stage, and many are blaming Democrats to a degree that Obama-generation Millennial voters didn’t.
Gen Z is not a small voting coalition. They are projected to represent 13% of votes cast in 2024, or approximately 20 million votes depending on turnout. That is a number of individuals significantly larger than the population of most U.S. states and would be equivalent to adding every single resident from Arizona, Iowa, Nevada, and Wisconsin together.
Biden won Gen Z by 35-percenateg points in 2020, making Zoomers one of the most fundamental Democratic coalitions in the country. He won young Millennials ages 25-29 by a much smaller 11-percentage point margin. While Biden’s polling numbers have fallen across the board, his numbers with Gen Z are now worse than his numbers with Millennials.
Polling across swing states from Redfield & Wilton Strategies shows Biden underperforming with Gen Z to an even greater degree than with Millennials on a range of issues including the economy, foreign policy, and immigration.
Let’s look at Arizona. When asked if Biden should run for re-election in 2024, young voters responded with a resounding no. However, Gen Z had the most vehement opposition to Biden running, with 63% of Zoomers saying Biden shouldn’t run, compared to 51% of 25–34-year-olds. That translates to Gen Z voters opposing Biden’s reelection by 12 more percentage points than Millennials.
Zoomers also give Biden dismal performance marks on his job as president, with a full 51% disapproving, and 37% of the group strongly disapproving. Millennials 25-34 also disapprove of Biden’s performance, but by 13-percentage-pointes less than Zoomers.
On the economy, Zoomers disapprove of Biden’s performance by 14 percentage points, 48% to 34%, while Millennials narrowly disapprove 40% to 39%. This leaves Zoomers disapproving by eight-percentage-points more than Millennials.
Young voters are not having it with Biden’s unchecked border disaster either, and they disapprove of Biden’s handling of immigration by a resounding 56% to 23%. Think about that – less than a quarter of Zoomers, not just Republicans – support Biden’s border policies. Millennials also disapprove of Biden’s handling of immigration but by 12-percenatge-points less than Zoomers – 44% to 31%.
On foreign policy, Zoomers are also much more critical of Biden than Millennials are. Zoomers disapprove of Biden’s foreign policy 43% to 29%, while Millennials narrowly disapprove 29% to 23%. Zoomers disapprove of Biden’s foreign policy by 14-percenatge-points more than Millennials.
Democrats have long banked on the youngest voters in the country rallying behind their progressive agenda, but with Gen Z that could be changing for the first time in decades.
Regardless of the media and mainstream institutions propping up the Biden Administration’s perilous policies, young people are facing rising costs of living, waves of illegal immigration, and a chaotic world, and many blame Biden for a lack of action on these issues.
Gen Z is starting to see through the progressive facade, but unless Republicans look beyond the mainstream headlines attempting to portray young people as collectively lost to the far-left, conservatives will miss an opportunity here.
Bill Wilson is the former president of Americans for Limited Government.
