A new poll revealed young registered voters trust former President Donald Trump over President Joe Biden when it comes to reducing prices and securing the border, two defining issues of the 2024 general election.
The polling released on Thursday by Democratic-aligned public opinion research group Blueprint found most young voters trust Biden over Trump to handle most things, except for two concerns that “may be the defining issues of the 2024 election.” The poll found 52% trust Trump more when it comes to lowering prices and that 53% trust Trump more to secure the border, statistics that gave pollsters pause.
“As we’ve already talked about, young voters are much closer ideologically to Joe Biden than they are to Donald Trump,” Evan Roth Smith, the lead pollster for Blueprint, said. “But, the two biggest issues of this election, inflation and immigration, it’s very notable that with young voters — those are the only places Donald Trump has an advantage, and it’s particularly concerning.”
The polling found that nearly every young voter answered that economic concern was a top issue and as a whole, inflation and the economy were the most frequently prioritized issues, chosen by 73% and 70% of young voters.
According to the data, just 13% of voters think Biden is most focused on lowering prices. Forty percent of those voters say the Biden administration is most focused on creating more jobs. Meanwhile, 32% of voters said Trump is focused on lowering prices, and the same share, 32%, say Trump is most focused on creating more jobs.
“It’s troubling that one of the things where they’re closest to Donald Trump is on his economic policy,” Roth Smith added. “That’s worrying; that’s very concerning.”
According to the poll, among the lowest-priority issues in the survey are LGBT issues and student loans, which were chosen 38% of the time. Climate change, Israel and Palestinian issues, race relations, and democracy were chosen about half the time. The most prioritized issues were inflation, healthcare, and jobs and the economy, which were chosen 70% or more of the time.
Experts reviewing the polling results are suggesting Democrats work to get out the word about Biden’s work to address inflation and improve the economy to increase young voter awareness.
Ashley Aylward, a senior researcher at the Democratic polling firm HIT Strategies, said she’s found the economy and cost of living continues to be young voters’ top issues.
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“They consistently tell us they aren’t able to reach the economic milestones that their parent’s generation or grandparent’s generation were able to, so they are increasingly frustrated,” Aylward said during a briefing with reporters on Thursday.
Young voters helped deliver Biden his first White House victory in 2020, winning 61% of voters under 30 and 55% between 30 and 44, according to the AP VoteCast survey of the electorate.
