Young voters are angry at President Biden and threatening to stay home in November, setting off alarms that have fueled a pandering spree as the nation’s oldest commander in chief desperately tries to capture the youth vote.
After the calendar flipped to 2024, Mr. Biden, 81, launched several policy initiatives aimed at alleviating young voters’ disappointment.
In the past two weeks, he imposed a moratorium on liquefied natural gas export permits to appeal to their climate concerns, canceled $5 billion in student loan debt and participated in a blitz of events touting abortion rights.
Mr. Biden’s campaign is reportedly pleading for an endorsement from global superstar Taylor Swift. The campaign has even half-jokingly proposed sending Mr. Biden to a stop on Ms. Swift’s Eras Tour.
“Young voters are leaving the Democrat Party in droves,” said Jimmy Keady, a Republican Party strategist. “That doesn’t mean they will be voting for Republicans, but it does mean that Joe Biden and the Democrats are going to have a hard time getting them to come back in. If Biden wants to recover, he is going to have to do more than earn the support of Taylor Swift.”
The Biden campaign didn’t respond to multiple requests for comment. The White House last fall launched a strategy for Vice President Kamala Harris to visit college campuses to appeal to young voters on issues such as abortion rights, gun safety, climate change, voting rights, gay rights and equality, and book bans.
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“This generation is critical to the urgent issues that are at stake right now for our future,” Ms. Harris has said. “It is young leaders throughout America who know what the solutions look like and are organizing in their communities to make them a reality. My message to students is clear: We are counting on you, we need you, you are everything.”
The pandering strategy isn’t new to Mr. Biden. Whenever polls reveal a drop in support among part of his Democratic base, he leaps into action.
The president has unleashed his toughest talk about securing the southern border as Hispanic voters abandon him, increased appearances at events with Black voters as their support declines, and tried to regain the far left with his climate proposals while others sour on his support for Israel.
Still, young voters, more than other traditionally reliable Democratic blocs, are turning against Mr. Biden. In 2020, he carried the youth vote by 25 percentage points over President Trump. A spate of polls released last month showed that the Republican presidential front-runner could do better with young voters this year.
A USA Today/Suffolk University poll found that Mr. Trump leads Mr. Biden 37% to 33% among voters 35 and younger. Results from a New York Times/Siena College poll revealed that Mr. Trump leads Mr. Biden 49% to 43% among voters ages 18 to 29.
A Quinnipiac poll last week found that Mr. Biden had a 5-point lead over Mr. Trump among Pennsylvania voters younger than 35. In 2020, Mr. Biden won that group by 16 percentage points.
Mr. Biden’s approval rating among voters ages 18 to 29 stands at 35%, according to a Harvard University poll in December.
The youth departures have increased Democratic anxiety ahead of a likely rematch between Mr. Biden and Mr. Trump. A Republican hasn’t won the majority of young voters since President Reagan in 1984.
The likelier scenario is that young voters will stay home in November. The Institute of Politics at the Harvard Kennedy School found last month that young people are less inclined to vote this year than in 2020, dropping from 57% to 49%.
Young voters in polls cite several areas where Mr. Biden has disappointed them. They accuse him of delaying action on climate change and failing to fulfill his promises to cancel student loans or codify Roe v. Wade. They also say he has mishandled the economy.
“Young voters are graduating college with debt that Joe Biden promised to wipe away,” Mr. Keady said. “They are joining a workforce and economy where it is hard to find a good-paying job that helps them make ends meet. Joe Biden’s youth program isn’t unique to young voters; they’re common for hardworking Americans from coast to coast.”
Mr. Biden’s support for Israel may be the biggest reason for his free fall among young voters. It remains one of the areas where he refuses to cave to the youth vote’s demands.
Young voters represent a growing Democratic Party faction that believes Israel is responsible for its war with Hamas and has colonized “indigenous” Palestinians. They are angry that Mr. Biden has sent weapons to Israel and what they say is insufficient humanitarian aid to the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip. They also are frustrated that the president hasn’t called for a cease-fire.
In November, a coalition of young voter groups, including March for Our Lives, United We Dream, and Gen-Z for Change, sent a letter telling Mr. Biden that his refusal to call for a cease-fire was a “moral and political disaster.”
Mr. Biden has kept his focus on climate and student debt to appease young voters. A Tufts University poll found that 72% of voters 29 and younger ranked climate change as the top issue motivating them to vote.
The same poll, however, found that many of the climate-concerned voters still need to be convinced that they should support the president. Overall, only 1 in 5 young people in the survey said they had heard about climate change from either the Trump or Biden campaign.
In response, Mr. Biden has put a moratorium on new licenses for liquefied natural gas exports. The pause, which will last through the Nov. 5 election, won high praise from climate activists, who accused him of breaking his promises last year when he approved ConocoPhillips’ oil and gas drilling project in Alaska.
He also canceled $5 billion in student loan debt for 74,000 borrowers, including those who work in the private sector. It was the latest in a series of the president’s actions to wipe out student debt. Mr. Biden used one of the smaller debt relief programs the White House launched after the Supreme Court struck down its original, much larger plan.