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Harris tops Trump by 9 points among young voters in new survey

By Miranda Nazzaro - 8/12/24, 2:56 PM EDT

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Vice President Harris leads former President Trump by 9 points among young voters in a new poll, marking the latest shift in support from a demographic President Biden struggled to capture before withdrawing from the 2024 race.

In a SocialSphere survey, released by Democratic super PAC Won't Pac Down, Harris garnered 51 percent support from registered voters ages 18-29 in battleground states in a two-way race against Trump, who had 42 percent of support from this group. Seven percent did not know which candidate they would back.

Pollsters noted this is a 13-point shift to Harris since the poll was taken last in early July, when Trump led in this group 48 percent to 44 percent.

Politico was the first to report and obtain the survey.

The same trend was seen in a five-way race, where Harris led Trump by 9 points (42 percent to 33 percent) and the remaining candidates — Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Cornel West and Jill Stein — each had single-digit support from young voters. Harris's support is up 10 points from what President Biden had last month, when Trump led him by 1 point (32 percent to 31 percent) among young voters.

The vice president's approval rating was also up 16 points since July, rising to 49 percent. The latest poll's rating for Harris is 9 points higher than Trump, who had a 40 percent approval rating.

Since replacing Biden atop the Democratic presidential ticket in late July, Harris has bolstered the party's base and experienced a surge in the polls against Trump. Her rallies drew thousands of attendees last week, which the campaign has touted against Trump, who has long looked to crowd size as a measure of support.

The SocialSphere survey is not the only poll to offer some good news for Harris.

A Morning Consult poll released last week showed the vice president leading Trump by 9 percentage points among voters younger than 35 years and leading 48 percent to 44 percent overall. The same poll showed Biden with a 9-point deficit among younger voters to Trump.

The poll, conducted by SocialSphere Inc., interviewed 1,313 people aged 18-29 from Aug. 2-5. The data is based on the subset of 1,044 registered voters and has a margin of error of 3 percentage points.

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