Young voters don’t really care to vote for politicians more than 50 years their senior, and it’s enough to keep them home this November, a new CBS News/YouGov poll shows.
According to the poll, those under 30 would rather sit out the election than have to choose between a 78-year-old former president or an incumbent who will turn 82 a couple of weeks after the election.
“Talking about young voters sets up a natural contrast with the age of this year’s candidates — which for some of these young voters marks a fifty-year or greater gap in ages — and how that affects their views. Half of these younger voters feel the candidates’ respective ages — President Biden and former President Donald Trump’s — make them out of touch,” pollsters wrote.
Half of the under-30s surveyed said that neither Trump nor Biden — either of whom would be the oldest candidate in history without the other — understand what makes a member of the younger generations tick.
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“Most importantly, when they feel that, they’re relatively less likely to want to vote,” pollsters wrote.
About one third of voters aged 18 to 29 reported they were unsure if they would vote this November, compared to 94% of those over 65 who said they most certainly would, and the same amount said they hadn’t given the presidential election much thought.
“Historically, younger voters don’t vote as much as older voters do, so that’s not unique to this younger generation now — it’s often about people’s life stage, putting down roots in a community, developing habits of voting, getting involved or just having more time to follow politics as one gets older,” pollsters wrote. “That said, just one in five young people feel their generation has a lot of say in the political process — even while at the same time, many of them aren’t likely to vote.”
According to the poll, if the election were held today, Trump would win the White House by a single point.
