4-24-2021
Biden Scores Highest Youth Approval of Any President in Decades.
The president’s poll numbers among young people exceed any in more than two decades.
For a 78-year-old president who consistently polled poorly among young voters during the 2020 Democratic primary, Joe Biden is posting some of the highest approval ratings from the demographic of any other president going back more than two decades.
The newest poll of young Americans aged 18-29 from the Institute of Politics at the Harvard Kennedy School shows that 59% of 18-29-year-olds approve of President Joe Biden's job in the White House, with his highest approval marks coming from young people of color, including 77% of young Black people and 70% of young Hispanic people.
The poll of 2,500 young people looked at views regarding the Biden administration's first 100 days as well as the future of the Republican Party, mental health and the impacts of social media.
Among college voters, Biden's 63% approval is the highest recorded in the 21-year history of the institute's survey, which recorded former President George W. Bush as having a 61% approval rating in 2003 and former President Barack Obama with a 57% approval rating in 2016.
The approval figures are somewhat remarkable considering that the institute's polling from spring 2020, which was conducted in mid-March as the primary contest was winding down, found that only one-third, or 34%, of young people held a favorable view of Biden.
The president's highest marks come from his handling of the coronavirus, of which 65% of young people approve. Meanwhile, 58% approve of his handling of climate change and education, 57% approve of his handling of race relations, 56% health care, 55% mental health, 53% the economy and 52% national security.
"As millennials and Gen Z become the largest voting bloc, their values and participation provide hope for the future and also a sense of urgency that our country must address the pressing issues that concern them," Mark Gearan, the director of the Institute of Politics, said.
The poll also showed that young people are far more politically engaged now than they were a decade ago.
For example, less than a year after Obama's election, 24% of young people considered themselves politically active, according to the institute's fall 2009 poll, compared to 36% who now consider themselves politically active. At 41%, young Black people are the most politically active group, the poll found.
While the hopefulness among all racial subgroups increased significantly, hopefulness among young people of color was most striking.
Just 18% of young Black people reported feeling hopeful in 2017, compared to 72% now.
Similarly, just 29% of Hispanics called themselves hopeful in 2017, compared to 69% now.
While a sense of hopefulness increased, the partisan mudslinging among young Democrats and Republicans may be simmering, the poll shows.
By a margin of nearly 3-1, the poll found that young people agreed with the sentiment, "Americans with different political views from me still want what's best for the country." In total, 50% of those polled agreed, including 53% of Democrats and 52% of Republicans.
"What we see in this year's Harvard Youth Poll is how great the power of politics really is," said John Della Volpe, the director of polling at the institute.
"With a new president and the temperature of politics turned down after the election, young Americans are more hopeful, more politically active, and they have more faith in their fellow Americans."
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