Keller @ Large: Biden, Trump face challenge winning over young voters
BOSTON - President Joe Biden will be 81 years old when voters cast their ballots in November 2024. And the Republican front-runner, former President Donald Trump, will be 78.
Young voters will be a key in the election. So how can two aging men win them over?
Biden was at the Grand Canyon Tuesday touting his environmental record in a move he hopes will appeal to younger voters, vowing to "conserve this land of ancestral footprints for all future generations." And no wonder. Because without the lion's share of younger voters there will likely be no Biden second term, says David Paleologos, who recently surveyed young voters for the Suffolk University Political Research Center.
"It was 36% Biden, 30% Trump, and 30% voting for an independent. 30!" says Paleologos. "Biden needs to win young people by 26, not six." Biden's margin was close to that in 2020 with a record-high youth vote turnout. But this time around, he must overcome a backlash.
"Student loans were supposed to be the silver bullet that would lock up young voters, but in our polling almost a third don't want Trump or Biden," says Paleologos.
In poll after poll, voters aged 18-34 make it clear they want generational change. They have the potential to pick the winner if they show up. So, if they get the 2020 rematch anyway, even without a third choice, look out below.
"If it's a binary choice you're going to have both Biden and Trump trying to make the other more unattractive," notes Paleologos. "And that's a strategy that actually worked for Trump among the general electorate in 2016."
Both candidates have their work cut out for them to reach younger voters. A recent New Hampshire poll showed 60% of Republicans under age 34 felt 65 was too old for a president, a bad omen for Trump.
But the onus is on Biden and the Democrats to turn out this all-important demographic group. And there's reason to believe that this time around, fear of Trump alone won't get the job done.