Young people were the lifeblood of Bernie Sanders’ 2016 presidential campaign that became so popular Hillary Clinton reportedly rigged the primary against him! But a new Morning Consult poll shows younger voters might be going elsewhere this time around.
Sanders’ support among voters ages 18-29 is down 12 points. It dropped from 45 percent in March to just 33 percent now, according to the survey.
Fox News viewers also seemed to like Sanders more, in a sense, than than liberal MSNBC viewers! When asked who they would choose first for the Democratic nomination, 22 percent of Fox News viewers chose Sanders. Only 16 percent of MSNBC viewers picked the Vermont senator.
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Joe Biden led all the 2020 Democrats in the poll with 39 percent support from Democratic voters. Sanders came in second at 19 percent. He was followed by both Elizabeth Warren and Kamala Harris, who tied for third with 8 percent each.
Who Will Young Voters Choose?
Whether young voters find newcomers like Pete Buttigieg or Beto O’Rourke or other Democratic presidential candidates more attractive is anyone’s guess. But, if Sanders loses youth support his 2020 campaign will look decidedly different than in 2016.
Socialist Sanders held rallies with thousands of college-aged and other young supporters that lit a fire in the party and inspired many younger people to get involved. Hillary Clinton’s campaign looked older and more boring in comparison. The Clinton camp had a serious challenge in Sanders that continued to reverberate at the Democrats’ national convention in Philadelphia.
Many found it amusing that the oldest candidate in the race in 2016 had the most youth support! It’s hard to imagine Sanders being as competitive as he was last time around without a significant amount of young people on board.
Still, elections fluctuate significantly throughout and the 2020 race is still young. Literally anything could happen.
Morning Consult conducted its poll by surveying 15,342 of likely registered Democratic primary voters in the second week of May and has a margin of error of +/- 1 percent.
