Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris is seeing a huge surge in support among young voters in her race against Donald Trump, potentially providing a major boost for the Democratic ticket less than three months before Election Day.
A new poll of Gen Z and millennial voters in battleground states found the vice president leading the former president 51 percent to 42 percent in a head-to-head matchup.
The poll, sponsored by Don’t PAC Down, which surveyed voters ages 18 to 29 in eight crucial states, marks a significant shift from what was happening before President Biden dropped out of the race last month.
In a hypothetical matchup between Harris and Trump in early July, Trump would have a four-point lead: 48 percent to 44 percent.
A new poll shows Vice President Kamala Harris seeing a surge in support for former President Donald Trump among voters ages 18 to 29 after President Biden dropped out of the race.
Including third-party candidates, the poll now finds Harris at 42 percent and Trump at 33 percent among young voters, with independent candidate Robert Kennedy Jr. at 7 percent.
When the poll was conducted early last month, Trump had 32 percent, Biden 31 percent and Kennedy 15 percent — significantly more support among young people than before Democrats had a shift at the top of their ticket.
As for Harris’s momentum among young voters, she saw the biggest gains among 18- to 24-year-olds, women, Black voters and college-educated voters, according to the poll.
Overall, 55 percent of voters ages 18 to 29 are much or somewhat more enthusiastic since Biden dropped out of the race and endorsed Harris, including 77 percent of Democrats who say they are somewhat or much more enthusiastic.
Since the beginning of July, the vice president has also seen her favorability among young voters increase by sixteen points according to new data.
Harris’s favorability hit 49 percent this month among Gen Z and millennial voters, while Trump’s favorability dipped slightly to 40 percent since early July.
The 59-year-old also beats Trump, 78, on nine of 12 leadership attributes, marking a significant shift from July.
Harris’ surge in support comes as both campaigns have made strong attempts to appeal to younger voters in recent weeks, especially online.
After Biden dropped out of the race, the campaign saw the number of followers on her TikTok account @KamalaHQ double overnight, from July 21 to July 22. It has also grown more than eightfold since the change from @BidenHQ, making the TikTok account the most followed social media account, according to the campaign.
After Harris took over as head of the Democratic ticket, her campaign quickly surpassed Trump’s in the number of views on videos from their TikTok campaign accounts.
Meanwhile, the vast majority of top-performing TikTok posts mentioning Harris in early August were positive, while the vast majority of top-performing videos mentioning Trump were negative, analytics platform Zelf found.
Meanwhile, Trump has also made an effort to reach young voters where they are. Earlier this month, he joined Gen Z streamer Adin Ross for the wide-ranging interview in his own appeal to young voters.
She also joined YouTuber Logan Paul for an episode of his podcast in June.
While Trump’s campaign has been surpassed in TikTok video views by Harris, he continues to have more followers at more than 9.9 million, and Harris posts even more content.
