Thread: Young voters flee Donald Trump in what may be historic trouncing, poll shows

Young voters flee Donald Trump in what may be historic trouncing, poll shows

Susan Page and Fernanda Crescente, USA TODAY 3 p.m. EDT August 14, 2016

A new USA TODAY/Rock the Vote Poll of voters under 35 finds overwhelming support for Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton.

WASHINGTON — Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton is consolidating the support of the Millennials who fueled Bernie Sanders' challenge during the primaries, a new USA TODAY/Rock the Vote Poll finds, as Republican Donald Trump heads toward the worst showing among younger voters in modern American history.

The survey shows Clinton trouncing Trump 56%-20% among those under 35, though she has failed so far to generate the levels of enthusiasm Sanders did — and the high turn-out that can signal — among Millennials.

"I get worried about the bigoted element of our country, and that they will stick with Trump regardless of his stupidity," says Elizabeth Krueger, 31, an actress in New York City who was among those surveyed. She supports Clinton. "She is not going to be a perfect president, but who would be?"

The findings have implications for politics long past the November election. If the trend continues, the Democratic Party will have scored double-digit victories among younger voters in three consecutive elections, the first time that has happened since such data became readily available in 1952. That could shape the political affiliations of the largest generation in American history for years to follow.

In the new survey, half of those under 35 say they identify with or lean toward the Democratic Party; just 20% identify with or lean toward the Republican Party. Seventeen percent are independents, and another 12% either identify with another party or don't know.

Trump's weakness among younger voters is unprecedented, lower even than the 32% of the vote that the Gallup Organization calculates Richard Nixon received among 18-to-29-year-old voters in 1972, an era of youthful protests against the Vietnam War.

In 2008 and 2012, overwhelming support among voters under 30 was a crucial part of Barack Obama's winning coalitions. But that doesn't reflect long-held partisan preferences. The Gallup analysis shows that as recently as 2000 younger voters split evenly between Democrat Al Gore and Republican George W. Bush, and the GOP's presidential candidates carried their support by double digits in 1984 and 1988.

Now some younger Republicans, like their elders, are torn between concerns about Trump and support for their party.

"At first I supported Ben Carson, and when he dropped out, I was supporting Ted Cruz, and I wasn't left with much when he left," Serena Potter, 19, of Brownsburg, Ind., a student at Purdue University, said in a follow-up phone interview after being polled. Now, asked whom she supports, she replies, "If there was a gun to my head, I'd say Trump. ... He is better than Hillary."

Police violence a rising concern for Millennials, new poll shows

The Millennials survey, the third this year, is part of USA TODAY's One Nation initiative, a series of forums across the country on the most important issues of 2016. The online poll of 1,539 adults age 18-34 was taken by Ipsos Public Affairs from Aug. 5-10. It has a credibility interval, akin to the margin of error, of 4.6.

Census Bureau data released in April estimated the number of Millennials in the United States at 75.4 million, surpassing the 74.9 million members of the aging Baby Boom generation, now 51-69.

WILL THEY VOTE?

Clinton faced her own challenges with winning Millennials' support. During the Democratic primaries, surveys of voters as they left polling places showed Sanders preferred by voters under 30 by an yawning 71%-28%.

Now, she has succeeded in winning over most of his supporters. In the new poll, she is backed by 72% of those who say they had supported Sanders. Eleven percent support Trump and another 11% say they won't vote. Six percent don't know.

However, enthusiasm about the election has ebbed since the survey was taken in March, when Sanders was still a candidate. The percentage seen as most likely to vote has dipped to 72% from 76%, and those seen as not very likely to vote has ticked up to 9% from 7%.

"I started out as a Bernie supporter, but when he dropped out I switched to Clinton," says Will Barkalow, 24, of Nobleboro, Maine, saying he saw "no other legitimate choice." Barkalow, who is starting a tech-repair business, says he is now enthusiastic about supporting her: "She is very good on policy. She is very bad at giving speeches and interacting with people."

Despite her groundbreaking status as the first female presidential nominee of a major party, Clinton does a bit better among young men (58%-22%) than she does among young women (53%-17%). Women are somewhat more likely to say they won't vote for either, 17% compared with 13% for men.

Interestingly, young men are more likely to say sexism is a major reason for hostility toward Clinton: 42% of men compared to 37% of women. Women are a bit more likely to say sexism plays no role at all, 30% compared with 28%.

"A lot of the complaints that I have heard against her is that she is too shrill and not attractive," says Taylor White, 21, of Wilmington, N.C. She studies social work at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington. "When people call women shrill, it is to devalue what they have to say because they are not saying it in a way that makes men comfortable."

Jacob Vander Feer, 25, who works at a big-box store in Bozeman, Montana, calls sexism no more than a minor factor for Clinton. "We have female Supreme Court judges, female senators, females in the House of Representatives," he says. "It is more used as a stance that, if you don't support Hillary, you are a sexist."

Is it Trump or Clinton?

CONVENTION CATASTROPHE

The Democratic National Convention provided a modest boost for Clinton among Millennials.

But the Republican National Convention was a catastrophe for Trump.

More than three of four of those surveyed paid at least some attention to the political conventions last month, by watching them on live TV, reading posts on social media such as Twitter and Facebook or streaming speeches on YouTube.

They didn't like what they saw at the GOP conclave in Cleveland. At least 50% of those surveyed say Trump seemed less presidential, less credible and less trustworthy afterwards. By more than 2-1, they say he seemed less human and less accessible. On each of five characteristics, Trump's standing fell.

Clinton, on the other hand, saw modest improvements in her standing after the convention in Philadelphia. By 39%-27%, she seemed more rather than less presidential, by 35%-23% more human. But while 31% say she seemed more trustworthy, an equal 31% say she seemed less trustworthy -- a sign of how stubborn that perception, her biggest personal vulnerability, has proved to be.

"She lies a lot, in my opinion, with the emails and stuff," says Franklin Tan, 18, a high-school senior from Springfield, N.J., who had supported Sanders and now says he doesn't support either candidate. "If you don't believe in her for president, if you don't think she is going to do a good job, then why vote for her?"

One motivation cited by both Clinton and Trump supporters: Keeping the other candidate out of the White House.

A 54% majority of Trump voters say one of the main reasons they are supporting the billionaire businessman is to keep Clinton out of the White House. And 51% of Clinton supporters said one of the main reasons they are supporting the former secretary of State is to keep Trump out of the White House.

That said, even more Clinton supporters, 57%, say they support her because she has "the right experience to lead;" just 22% of Trump supporters say that of him. The second-ranking reason they give for backing Trump is that he is "authentic;" just 20% of Clinton supporters say that of her.

SHOW US THE GREEN

Green Party nominee Jill Stein and Libertarian Gary Johnson, who have targeted appeals to disenchanted Sanders' supporters, show slightly higher levels of support than among the electorate as a whole.

Johnson is backed by 11% and Stein by 4% in the poll when their names are included, narrowing Clinton's enormous edge over Trump by a bit. In the four-way ballot test, Clinton is at 50% and Trump at 18%, a lead of 32 percentage points for her, compared with 36 points in the two-way ballot.

Among voters of all ages, Johnson is supported by 8.3% and Stein by 3%, according to the RealClearPolitics average of recent nationwide polls.

Tim Leazott, 33, an administrative assistant from Byfield, Mass., describes himself as a moderate Republican who supported Ohio Gov. John Kasich during the primaries and now backs Johnson because of his concerns about both Trump and Clinton.

"It is hard to really feel good about voting for either party's candidate," he says. "It is scary that, throughout the whole country, it has come to these two candidates that are going to determine the presidency for the next four years."

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/p...poll/88666746/

I don't believe this poll because I see so many people under the age of 35 at the Trump Rallies, however, I do think we need to work on the younger voters and make sure they know the truth about Donald Trump. They've been filled with SO MANY LIES about Trump being a racist, a bigot, a misogynist, a xenophobe that many will believe it unless they hear otherwise ... so we need to make sure that is corrected and they know the truth about Donald Trump who doesn't have a racist, bigoted, misogynist, xenophobic bone in his body and never has.

Donald Trump is in this race for President to help ALL AMERICANS fix our country and get their lives and futures back on track with a good economy, great jobs with high paying wages, secure borders to control the population and size of the work force to keep a balance between population, jobs, earnings and sustainability; to change our foreign policy from one of regime-change meddlers that cost Americans trillions of dollars and thousands of lives to one of being friends with everyone and engaging only in wars that protect our national security; protecting Social Security and Medicare; improving our education and health care systems; rebuilding our infrastructure; reducing over-priced spending by the federal government; and reducing the national debt.

There are so many important issues that these young voters need to know about and understand that Trump's policies are ones that impact them directly and in a very very positive manner, in a way that has nothing to do with one's gender or race, because these policies improve the lives of all Americans. ALL AMERICANS.

A VOTE FOR TRUMP IS A VOTE FOR ALL AMERICANS!

VOTE FOR DONALD J TRUMP FOR PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES!!

USA Today, another media outlet that has openly supported Hillary Clinton.

The indoctrination in the public schools has been thorough. Of course, very few of these people can grasp the larger picture-----government directed by special interests no matter who is in office. Negative trade deals. Undermining our national security and well being with open borders. Exacerbating racial tensions for political gain.

It takes an experienced eye to perceive these trends---Young people fed a fodder of agitprop have hard time understanding. They are conservative enough to not defy their mentors---yet not bold enough to seriously question them, either. When they do, it seems like they veer off into the never-never land of dreamy, unconventional and libertarian views.

by ALEX SWOYER
17 Aug 2016
Washington, DC
424 comments


Millennials who support Donald Trump are pushing back against a recent opinion article in USA Today arguing that millennial voters “are too intelligent to vote for Trump.”

What is labeled as a “Letter to the Editor” showcases social media posts portraying Trump as a racist. One states, “Young voters are too intelligent and not racist, or biased, enough to vote for Donald Trump.”

But Nick Adams, a 31-year-old millennial, author and a recent immigrant to America, disagrees, saying this type of “snowflake disposition and pussycat inclinations” from millennials is a major part of the “decline of America.”

“Generally speaking, they are ungrateful, ignorant and almost treasonous unpatriotic because their education from elementary school through high school has made them that way,” he explained.

Adams, who works with the nonpartisan organization The Foundation for Liberty and American Greatness (FLAG), told Breitbart News that his personal opinion of the millennials showcased in the USA Today article is that they shouldn’t vote if they can’t see that “America is exceptional.”

They’re not intelligent; without their smartphone they couldn’t find their own bathroom. If brains were dynamite, they wouldn’t have enough to blow their nose. America is about kicking butt, not kissing it. Trump is the furthest thing from a bigot and racist. If they can’t see that Donald Trump wants to make America great again, and that America is exceptional, they should stay in daddy’s garage and not vote.

The labeling of Trump as a “racist” by some millennials comes as a recent USA Today poll shows the New Yorker is heading for “the worst showing among younger voters in modern American history,” with Hillary Clinton soaking up support from millennials who previously backed Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT).

Despite the low poll numbers, Adams says Trump “doesn’t need to pander to anyone.”

However, he suggests Trump reaches out to millennials by simply showing them what opportunities he can provide them, saying the GOP nominee’s message “should all be about opportunity.”

“Millennials must understand that they will be poorer, weaker, less safe, less free and far more unlikely to achieve the dreams in their heart under Hillary Clinton, than Donald Trump,” Adams added. “If you’re a millennial and voting for Hillary, you should slap yourself upside of the head because you’re voting against your own interests!”

Madison Gesiotto, who writes a column on millennials for The Washington Times, said Trump should use ads to reach out to millennials in order to improve his support from young voters.

“I’d love to see Mr. Trump use more money on advertisements specifically targeted toward millennials,” she suggested. “Trump needs to more actively reach out to millennials with statistics and facts showing the overall negative effect that Obama administration policies have had on millennials, specifically on college students.”

It’s the past administration’s effect on millennials, and the business opportunities that Trump presents, that has newlywed millennials Gabrielle and Brian Bosché — both entrepreneurs in their late twenties — supporting Trump instead of Clinton.

“With three businesses between the two of us, the choice is clear. Donald Trump is the only candidate that wants more contestants on shows like Shark Tank. We need someone in the White House who knows the struggles of startups and corporations,” the couple explained to Breitbart News. “Donald Trump may offend you with what he says, but Hillary Clinton will decimate your company with what she does. This election isn’t personal. It’s business.”

Gesiotto also told Breitbart News that she suspects more millennial groups will be out supporting the GOP nominee once college Republican groups return to campus for the fall semester.

http://www.breitbart.com/2016-presid...-donald-trump/

You look at the crowds at Trump Rallies, and it is filled with young people, so I don't believe these polls on the Millennials. Good for the young voters who support Trump for standing up against USA Today.

Stupid people support illegal immigration. Smart People oppose it.

Stupid people support free trade treason. Smart People oppose it.

Stupid people support Hillary for the above reasons. Smart People oppose her.

For millennial voters, the Clinton vs. Trump choice ‘feels like a joke’