Donald Trump and Joe Biden are now tied among Generation Z voters, according to a new poll conducted after the June 27 presidential TV debate.
The presumptive Republican presidential nominee is set to face the incumbent president in November, and polls have so far shown that the results of the 2020 White House rematch will be tight, with the pair statistically tied or holding only marginal leads in a number of surveys.
However, a new poll has shown Trump is catching up with Biden among younger voters aged 18 to 29.
The New York Times/Siena College poll of 1,532 likely voters found that 48 percent of Gen Z voters will vote for Biden while 45 percent will vote for Trump.
The survey was conducted from June 28 to July 2, 2024, and has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.8 percentage points.
Steven Cheung, Trump's communications director told Newsweek in response to a request for comment: "Crooked Joe Biden must be scared because President Trump has closed the youth gap significantly, with some polls showing Biden losing badly."
Newsweek also contacted representatives for Biden by email outside of normal business hours to comment on this story and will update it with any response.
This group of voters is a key Democratic base. About 60 percent of people aged 18 to 29 voted for Biden in the 2020 election so a fall in support could swing the election to Trump.
The new survey follows other polls which suggested Biden was ahead of Trump. One Harvard CAPS/Harris poll, conducted between March 20 and 21, found that only 35 percent of Gen Z voters said they would vote for Trump.
Another poll, conducted in June by CBS News/YouGov, before the TV debate, found that Biden had a 23-point lead among voters aged between 18 and 29.
However, of registered voters polled in the latest NYT survey, 18 percent of Gen Z voters believe that Biden should remain the party's nominee following criticism about his performance in the first presidential debate. This is a 7-point increase from a previous June poll. And 20 percent of likely voters also thought Biden should remain as the nominee, but 72 percent said there should be a different nominee.
In comparison, 40 percent of Gen Z likely voters said Trump should remain the Republican's nominee while 54 percent suggested he pass the baton.
While polling like this is interesting, it also may not be instructive in determining the results of the election due to the U.S.' Electoral College system which awards each state a certain number of votes based on population.
A presidential candidate must secure 270 electoral votes for victory, and winning the national popular vote does not guarantee success.
Meanwhile, with some four months to go until the election, experts have suggested it is still too early to call its results.
The presidential election takes place on November 5.
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About the writer
Kate Plummer is a Newsweek reporter based in London, U.K. Her focus is on U.S. politics and national affairs, and ... Read more
