President Biden’s Youth Appeal

Berkeley, CA — Folks, two weeks after President Joe Biden’s re-election announcement, a Washington Post and ABC News poll released earlier this month found that his overall approval rating fell to 36%. This represents the lowest it has been in his two-year presidency, and calls into question how he will perform in the 2024 election. 

Fifty-eight percent of Democratic respondents favour the party nominating someone other than Biden. A factor that weighed heavily on voters was age. Biden and Donald Trump would be 82 and 78, respectively, at the time of the 2025 inauguration. The poll found that 26% said Biden would be too old, and an additional 43% said they are both too old. A surprisingly high 63% of people who were asked if Biden has the mental sharpness it takes to serve effectively as president responded in the negative.

The poll is a one-time benchmark, and should be taken with a grain of salt. The actual number fluctuates regularly.

Interestingly, the Harvard Youth Poll also found a 36% approval rating of the president among the group they surveyed. 

Biden garnered support from young progressives in the lead up to the 2020 election, but has been seeking more support recently from older, more centrist voters. He is making more conservative decisions on issues that matter to younger voters, such as climate change policies.

Seeing the president with members of our generation is a successful way to energize voters, but he has to continue to follow through with action. While he has delivered on issues such as LGBTQ+ rights, progress has proven limited for his promised student loan forgiveness program, which is not accepting applications.