Younger voters are more convinced than last month that President Joe Biden should remain the Democratic presidential nominee following last week's debate, according to a new poll.
Last Thursday, President Biden and presumptive Republican nominee and former President Donald Trump participated in the first presidential debate of this cycle.
Biden's performance was criticized by his own party, with many Democratic voters, politicians, and commentators citing his stumbling and at times incoherent and hard-to-hear responses as worrisome. Questions about Biden's mental sharpness and age have flared up again after the 81-year-old's performance. A Biden aide, meanwhile, told Newsweek late Thursday night that the president was battling a cold during the debate.
Yesterday, Texas Representative Lloyd Doggett became the first sitting House Democrat to call on Biden to drop out of the election. Biden's campaign has not signaled stepping down.
Despite this, a recent New York Times/Siena College poll shows that 18 percent of Generation Z (Gen Z) voters, 18 to 29 years old, believe that Biden should remain the party's nominee. This is a 7-point increase from a previous June poll. The survey of 1,532 registered voters was conducted from June 28 to July 2, 2024, and has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.8 percentage points.
A similar poll by New York Times/Siena College was conducted from June 20 to June 25, just two days before the debate, found that 11 percent of Gen Z voters supported Biden as the Democratic nominee.
The survey of 1,226 registered voters revealed that 82 percent of Gen Z participants said there should be a different Democratic nominee. In the July poll, this number dropped to 73 percent, a 9-point decline. The June poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.
However, Biden's minimal gains among young voters are significantly lower than in February when polls showed 32 percent of Gen Z voters supporting his Democratic Party nomination, with 66 percent believing someone else should be the nominee. That New York Times/ Siena College poll of 990 registered voters was conducted from February 25 to February 28, 2024, with a margin of error of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points.
In the new July poll, older age groups were the same or more likely than Gen Z voters to support Biden's bid as Democratic nominee even though Gen X and millennials' support waned post-debate.
The July survey found 18 percent of 30- to 44-year-olds support his bid, down from 23 percent in June, and 76 percent do not. It also revealed that 32 percent of 45- to 64-year-olds believe Biden should remain the nominee, a decrease from 33 percent in June, while 58 percent do not think so.
Among the the 65-year-old and above age category the July poll found 47 percent supported Biden's nomination, a 7-point increase from 40 percent in June, while 42 percent did not.
National polling aggregator FiveThirtyEight shows Trump pulling ahead of Biden by 2.1 points, as of Wednesday morning. The presidential debate has been extremely tight, with predictions often flipping who will control the White House. Just days before the debate, Biden was leading by a narrow margin.
About the writer
Mandy Taheri is a Newsweek reporter based in Connecticut and Brooklyn. She joined Newsweek as a reporter in 2024. She ... Read more
