Half of Gen Z voters say they’ll vote for Vice President Kamala Harris in November, while a third say they’ll cast their ballot for former President Donald Trump. That’s a bigger gap for the Democratic nominee than in some other polls this year, but it’s still not quite the same as it was for the party in 2020, a new survey of registered voters under 30 finds.
The results of the NBC News Stay Tuned Gen Z Poll, powered by SurveyMonkey, come as young voters in 2024 face new economic and cultural challenges, including rising costs and debt concerns, leading to delays in some major life events.
Another 1 in 10 respondents said they would not vote in the presidential election.
Harris is supported by 60% of young voters who say they are almost certain they will cast a ballot in the presidential election. That figure matches the 60% of 18- to 29-year-olds who Joe Biden won over Trump in the 2020 election, according to NBC News exit poll results.
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It’s a stark change from Biden’s performance in some 2024 polls before he dropped out of the race — and the new survey, which included 2,617 respondents online, offers some key reasons why. Overall, 73% of Gen Z voters said they would support setting an upper age limit for candidates to be eligible to run for president, while 27% said they would oppose such a limit.
Of those who said they supported an age limit for the presidency, 54% said the age limit should be below 65.
Now, in a Harris-Trump race, the gender gap among Gen Z voters is significant. Young women said they would vote for Harris for president by 30 points. Young men also said they would support Harris — but by just 4 points over Trump.
There is no significant difference between the two groups in their enthusiasm for voting, with about 55% of both young men and women saying they are “absolutely certain” they will vote in November.
About 8 in 10 Gen Z voters who identify as Democrat or Republican say they will vote for their party’s nominee in November. Support for the two candidates is evenly split between Harris and Trump among independents, with each candidate winning about 25% of young voters.
Crucially, a whopping 34% of young independents who have no preference for either party say they will not vote in the presidential election.
Overall, an overwhelming majority of young voters who responded (88%) said they were likely to vote in the presidential election, with 55% of them saying they were almost certain they would vote.
Harris has strong support among college graduates, outpacing Trump by 26 points among that group (56% to 30%). Moreover, only 5% of college graduates say they will not vote for the president in November. Harris also does equally well among current college students, leading Trump by 25 points (54% to 29%).
Among young voters without a college degree who are not currently in school, support for both candidates is equal: 41%.
How Generation Z Makes Politics
Three-quarters have participated in the political process in the past year in ways not directly related to campaigns or elections, while a quarter have not participated in the political process at all. Some of the ways Gen Z is participating in the political process include unfollowing celebrities or political figures on social media (37%), signing a petition (34%), boycotting a product or company (32%), sharing political opinions or news articles on social media (31%), and unfollowing friends or family on social media (29%).
A whopping 54% of Gen Z voters who reported participating in the political process are voting for Harris, compared to 33% for Trump.
Just under 7 in 10 Gen Z voters said the country is ready to elect a female president, the poll found, including 38% who said the country is absolutely ready. And 3 in 10 respondents said the country is not ready for a female president.
Seven in 10 voters who said they are absolutely ready to elect a woman as president support Harris, and the same percentage of voters who said they are absolutely ready to elect a woman as president support Harris. not ready to support Trump.
When it comes to the candidates’ running mates, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz is the clear favorite among young voters. Three in 10 voters rated Harris’ choice of Walz as “excellent,” while an identical percentage rated Trump’s choice of Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance as “poor.”
Overall, 56% of Gen Z voters had a positive outlook on Harris’ VP pick, compared to just 33% who had a sunny outlook on Trump’s pick. Another 20% of young voters have no opinion on Walz or Vance.
Newly eligible voters support Harris
Voters under the age of 30 who did not vote in the 2020 presidential election because they were not yet eligible plan to vote for Harris over Trump by 26 percentage points (57% and 31%, respectively).
Among those who were eligible but didn’t vote in 2020, it’s a toss-up: 30% said they supported Harris and 27% Trump, well within the poll’s margin of error. Among that group, 36% say they won’t vote in November.
Three-quarters of 2020 Biden voters said they would support Harris, and 14% said they would vote for Trump this time around. Likewise, 73% of 2020 Trump voters said they would vote for him again, but 23% of 2020 Trump voters said they plan to vote for Harris in November.
This NBC News Stay Tuned Gen Z poll was powered by SurveyMonkeythe fast, intuitive feedback management platform that answers 20 million questions daily. It was conducted online August 23-30 among a national sample of 2,617 registered voters ages 18 to 29. The data were weighted by population totals among 18-29 year olds for gender, race, census region (all from the American Community Survey), and partisanship (from the Cooperative Election Study). The estimated margin of error for this survey is plus or minus 3.1 percentage points. Sampling error associated with subgroup results is higher.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
