Top youth pollster fears Dems losing grip on key generation of voters

Harvard Kennedy School’s Institute of Politics Polling Director Jonathan Della Volpe expressed worry during a Friday podcast that Democrats may be losing ground with younger voters.

Della Volpe, on “Fast Politics w/ Molly Jong-Fast,” said he fears the Democrat Party missed an extraordinary chance to solidify its influence with young Americans in recent years.

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“The concern I have for Democrats is just a handful of years ago, I would say that every day that, for every thousand young people who turn 18, Molly, like 700 of them, six or 700 of them, have values aligned with the Democrat Party,” Della Volpe said. “It was like this incredible opportunity for the Democrats to kind of cement kind of their values with an emerging generation. They didn’t communicate that very well.”

“And now we’re living, you know, in what I think is the beginning of a post-ideological era with younger people, okay, where, because of the concerns about economics, they’re voting in what they would say is a much more pragmatic way than they did, you know, in maybe ’16 or, you know, in ’18 or even in ’20,” he continued. “So that’s a concern if younger people agree with Democrats on most issues, but they’re not voting in the numbers that they voted with Democrats in the past. That’s a huge concern because my generation is just getting more conservative, right?”

Della Volpe is part of Generation X, according to his website. Generation X represents people who were born between 1965 and 1980, according to the National Institute on Retirement Security.

President Donald Trump gained significant support with young voters against former Vice President Kamala Harris in 2024 compared to his backing among the crucial demographic against former President Joe Biden in 2020, according to CNN chief data analyst Harry Enten.

“If you look at the Trump versus Democrat margin, you look at voters under the age of 25, you go back to 2020,” the data analyst said. “Look, Joe Biden won this group overwhelmingly. Look at that, by 34 points. You look at 2024. Look, Kamala Harris won it, but just by 11.”

“Trump gained more among voters under the age of 25 than any other age group,” he continued. “If you think of young people as being Democrats, while they may still lean Democrat, not in any way in the same numbers that they used to just even four years ago, Donald Trump doing considerably better among younger voters.”

Trump also made significant inroads with Hispanic men during the 2024 election, securing a majority of their votes nationwide.

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