Biden’s efforts on student loans haven’t won over young voters yet

President Joe Biden has worked to woo young voters with his student loan forgiveness plan, but he is still lagging with the demographic in polls against former President Donald Trump.

In two polls released on Thursday, Biden has smaller leads over Trump with young voters than four years ago — in a group he needs to win convincingly to win another term. The spring 2024 Harvard Youth poll showed Biden leading Trump 45% to 37% with adults aged 18 to 29, significantly behind Biden’s 51%-to-28% lead in 2020 with that base of voters, according to the same pollster at this time in 2020.

In an Emerson College poll, Biden leads Trump among registered voters aged 18 to 29 by 57.9% to 42.1%, which is behind his 60.5%-to-29% lead in the age group with the same pollster in April 2020.

In 2020, Biden got 60% of the vote from those aged 18 to 29, compared to Trump’s 36%, according to a CNN exit poll. John Della Volpe, the Harvard Kennedy School Institute of Politics polling director, told Politico that for Biden to win in November, he will likely need to improve his numbers with younger voters.

“For a Democrat to comfortably win the Electoral College, he or she needs to win 60% of the youth vote. Biden and Obama, ’12 and ’20, won 60%. Obama got 66% in ’08. [John] Kerry and Hillary Clinton got 55%,” Della Volpe said. “Biden is in the mid-50s. Can you improve that to get to 60%? It’s within reach.”

Biden has pushed a new student loan forgiveness plan in a bid to regain support from young voters Trump has peeled away. The president’s plan would cost $84 billion if implemented, according to one analysis. Biden’s previous student loan forgiveness plan, unveiled ahead of the 2022 midterm elections, was struck down by the Supreme Court as unconstitutional.

The Biden White House has also mobilized Vice President Kamala Harris to several college campuses over the past year in an effort to win over younger voters.

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In the overall survey conducted by Emerson College, Trump leads all voters with 46% compared to Biden’s 43%, a continuing trend of Trump overperforming compared to four years ago.

While Trump maintains a narrow lead in the RealClearPolitics national polling average, he also holds leads over Biden in most polls in key swing states.