I wonder if they can explain me?
Notable & Quotable: Vox Explains the Young
‘Young voters aren’t all that mystical; they’re a lot like the average American, concerned first and foremost with the state of the economy.’
May 17, 2024 4:53 pm ET
From “What young voters actually care about: It’s not what you think” by Christian Paz on Vox.com, May 16:
Long before the Israel-Hamas war broke out, young Americans were already souring on President Joe Biden. That discontent has only picked up in the last few months—registering in polls as increased support for Donald Trump and third-party candidates, and defections from the president, but not necessarily from his party.
The reasons for why this is happening have become one of the defining questions of the 2024 election so far. But what if this horse race is missing the point?
A new poll of young voters shared exclusively with Vox provides an important corrective: Young voters aren’t all that mystical; they’re a lot like the average American, concerned first and foremost with the state of the economy.
“People tend to have a skewed perception of what young voters prioritize,” Evan Roth Smith, the lead pollster for the Democratic-aligned public opinion research group Blueprint, which conducted this polling, told me. “A large part of that is because there are ways politically that young voters are very different and very distinct in what they care about. But the places that they’re different shouldn’t be confused with the places that they care the most about.”
This tracks with what my election reporting has turned up this year: Economic and affordability issues are far and away the top concern for all young voters in Blueprint’s latest poll. Progressive priorities, like climate change, student loans, and even the Israel-Palestine conflict, rank far below kitchen table issues.
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