WASHINGTON — Joe Biden is in no danger of losing young voters to President Donald Trump. But he faces a lack of enthusiasm from Millennials and Gen Z voters with the potential to decide his fate if they stay home or vote for a third party candidate.
Many of these voters preferred Bernie Sanders in the Democratic primary and perceive Biden as a blank slate. They aren’t sure he’s a change agent or that his policies match the scale of their problems. Some worry about his age and fitness. Most seem open to supporting Biden to stop Trump but need to hear more from him.
That’s the conclusion of new focus groups that delve into the mindset of Millennial and Gen Z voters in 11 battleground states, which were conducted in mid and late April by the political consulting firm Global Strategy Group on behalf of NextGen America, a youth-focused progressive advocacy group.
The good news for Biden is that many voters are persuaded by the argument that his views aren’t so far from those of Sanders, and by endorsements from leaders that young people trust, including Sanders himself. Biden also benefits from the contrast with Trump, who is immensely unpopular among young Americans.
“On the other hand, there are clear warning signs,” the firm wrote in a PowerPoint presentation on the findings. “For now, perceptions that Biden is too close to corporate interests or that he is dishonest often appear linked to more general perceptions of him as a ‘typical’ or ‘career politician,’ rather than someone who is particularly bad.”
Some voters brought up the sexual assault allegations as a concern, while others cited his ties to credit card companies in the past. The focus groups found that Sanders-to-Trump crossovers are an “idiosyncratic and marginal group” — more prevalent are wait-and-see voters who aren’t committed to turning out and potential third party defectors, an unusually large group in the 2016 election.
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Biden has sought to appeal to young voters by moving toward Sanders’ platform on free public college and adopting bankruptcy overhauls pushed by Elizabeth Warren. At virtual fundraisers recently, he called himself “a transition candidate” interested in elevating younger voices, and said he recognizes that “I have to make sure you know I’m listening” to avoid a 2016 repeat.
Young voters are economically anxious as the first two generations in U.S. history that risk being worse off than their parents, coming of age in the Great Recession and the coronavirus. They worry about the high cost of education and health care, as well as mass shootings and climate change. They’re an unreliable group of voters whose attitudes can make or break presidential campaigns.
For Biden, there is tension between his outreach to these young voters hungry and his pitch to older, suburban and moderate Americans who aren’t looking for radical change but rather a safe alternative to Trump. His low-key campaign has produced leads over Trump in recent polls.
“Blank slate isn’t gonna cut it for young people. But that doesn’t mean he has to change who he is,” said Ben Wessel, the executive director of NextGen America, which commissioned the new study.
Wessel said the apparent Democratic nominee and his team can appeal to young voters by pitching his candidacy as a vehicle for progress in contrast to Trump, by raising the scale of his ambitions on climate change or championing full marijuana legalization, and by continuing to present himself as a bridge to the next generation.
He said Biden is “taking a lot of steps in the right direction” but must double down on his investments with young people and “not assume this is going to be solved with a Bernie endorsement video.”
But the focus group warned that Biden and his allies should not try to portray him as anything other than a moderate or oversell his progressivism as that would “rapidly degrade credibility” with young voters.
“They have incredibly high bullshit detectors and they’re not willing to take crap from anyone,” he said. “This idea that he’s secretly some dyed in the wool Bernie stan feels like dumb pandering.”
Biden’s other problem is his lack of presence in the online spaces where young people socialize and get their information, such as Instagram, YouTube and TikTok. Wessel said Biden doesn’t personally need millions of followers on these platforms and can make up the gap by appearing on the channels of celebrities who are trusted by young people, like Cardi B or Miley Cyrus.
A Monmouth poll released Wednesday found Biden leading Trump by a comfortable 9 points while winning 56 percent of voters under 35 years old. By contrast, Hillary Clinton won 55 percent of voters under 30 in 2016 and Obama won 60 percent of them in 2012.
But the election is six months away and if the new focus groups are any indication, Biden is still ill-defined for many young voters.
“Biden is unknown,” the Global Strategy Group study concluded. “He became the nominee in the middle of the coronavirus crisis. Like many other voters, these ones are still getting to know Joe.”
