The Young America's Foundation (YAF) recently released the findings of a poll conducted by Echloen Insights on what students think about current issues, which included findings that could impact the two frontrunners for the Democratic and Republican primaries. The results are pretty damning for the system as it stands today, including and especially when it comes to 80-year-old President Joe Biden running for reelection.
6/ For our full findings, including questions on freedom of thought on college campuses and student debt cancelation, see our full report here: https://t.co/XLyrSy2dF0
— YAF (@yaf) August 14, 2023
Biden won in 2020 with 59 percent of voters under 30, who made up a considerable amount of voters in that election. Now, though, they're souring on the president they helped elect.
In 2021, 58 percent of high school students approved of Biden while 29 percent disapprove. Sixty-two percent of college students approved of Biden while 28 percent disapproved. Now, in 2023, a plurality of high school students disapprove, at 47 percent, while just 33 percent approve of Biden. Among college students, a majority, at 51 percent, disapprove, while 38 percent approve.
Big declines in support for Biden among high school and college students. His strong poll numbers from 2021 have dropped by 25 percentage points, according to a new @yaf poll conducted by @EchelonInsights.
— Rob Bluey (@RobertBluey) August 14, 2023
Full results and more details here: https://t.co/Dq2sjrtVbQ pic.twitter.com/fbBDZd6qnd
Students are also reflective of concerns other Americans are having with the president in that they many of them say no when asked "is Joe Biden mentally fit enough to handle the job of president."
A plurality of high school students and college students, at 46 percent and 47 percent, respectively, say he's not. Just 26 percent of high school students and 27 percent of college students say that he is. Particularly telling is that high school students are slightly more likely to say they're unsure if he's mentally fit enough than he is, at 28 percent, though that number is within the margin of error.
Not only do strong majorities of conservative high school (75 percent) and conservative college students (70 percent) say that he's not mentally fit enough, but majorities of moderate high school (51 percent) and moderate conservative college students (55 percent) say he's not.
Only a plurality of liberal high school students (46 percent) and liberal college students (41 percent) say that Biden is mentally fit enough.
The poll also found that by double digits, students are not confident that Biden is "an effective leader when it comes to the needs of young people." Just 32 percent of high school students are confident, while 53 percent of them are not. For college students, 38 percent are confident, while 54 percent are not.
Just like many other Americans, young people also believe that Biden should face a primary challenger. This includes 56 percent of high school students and 61 percent of college students who say so. The numbers particularly worth looking at are the 68 percent of high school liberal students who want Biden to face a primary challenger.
Rep. Dean Phillips (D-MN) is chief among those calling for Biden to face a primary challenger, such as from a midwestern governor.
3/ Compared to data from 2021, both high school and college students’ ratings of Joe Biden have significantly declined and almost half believe he is mentally unfit to be president. A majority of these students would also like Biden to face a challenge in the primary. pic.twitter.com/EvcpBMJxsm
— YAF (@yaf) August 14, 2023
Even more bad news for Biden, who at 80-years-old very much looks and sounds like our nation's oldest president is how supportive students are of a maximum age limit for presidential candidates. Sixty-eight percent of high school students said they would support such an age limit, while 74 percent of college students said they would. Just 16 percent of high school students and 18 percent of college students are opposed.
Pluralities of high school students (46 percent) and college students (37 percent) believe that the maximum age limit for president should be 60-69 years old.
Former Gov. Nikki Haley (R-SC), who announced in February that she is running in the Republican presidential primary, came out in favor of term limits for Congress and mental mandatory mental competency tests for politicians over 75 years old.
4/ A strong majority of college students – 74 percent – express support for establishing a maximum age limit for presidential candidates. A majority of those who support a maximum age limit say it should be somewhere between the ages of 60-69. pic.twitter.com/fvCgS5iplP
— YAF (@yaf) August 14, 2023
Former and potentially future President Donald Trump doesn't necessarily have it so easy in the poll either, though. He's hinted that he's not going to participate in the RNC debates, the first which is just a little over a week away. The current frontrunner has argued in part that he won't bother debating when he's already so far ahead in the polls. Trump is expected to announce his decision this week.
According to the poll, though, 67 percent of high school students and 65 percent of college students think that all GOP candidates should participate in the debate.
1/ We surveyed over 1,600 students on current issues.
— YAF (@yaf) August 14, 2023
74% of college students support a presidential maximum age limit.
Liberals want Biden to face primary challengers, while conservatives want to see Trump in the debates.
Here are some of our other major findings:
THREAD🧵 pic.twitter.com/KvymRYNrSP
The poll also asked students what their top issues are. In order of importance the issues included the economy, school safety, gun policies, education, the environment and climate change, abortion, LGBTQ+ rights, health care, political corruption, race relations, and immigration.
"They rank the economy, school safety, and gun policies as their top three issues of most concern. Interestingly, LGBTQ+ issues and race relations – two of the Left’s primary areas of focus for young people – fall on the bottom half of the list," the poll's write-up noted.
2/ The economy is a top concern for students, though school safety ranks higher among high schoolers, and gun policies are a close second for college students. pic.twitter.com/e6nooEyY1W
— YAF (@yaf) August 14, 2023
The poll was conducted July 19-July 24, 2023 with 840 high school students ages 15-20 and 812 college students ages 15-24. The margin of error was at plus or minus 4.0 percentage points for high school students, and at plus or minus 4.1 percentage points for college students.
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