Skip to content

Post-Debate Polls Show Millennials Turn Toward Clinton

Surveys in battleground states show younger voters say Clinton won debate

Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton has struggled to win over young voters who supported Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders in the primaries. (Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call file photo)
Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton has struggled to win over young voters who supported Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders in the primaries. (Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call file photo)

Hillary Clinton received a boost among voters under 30 in key battleground states, according to a poll conducted after Monday’s first presidential debate.

A poll released Thursday by Public Policy Polling shows the Democratic presidential nominee with a large lead among voters under 30, a group she has struggled with, in Colorado, Florida, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Virginia.

In all five states, she has at least a 19-point edge among younger voters in the race against Republican rival Donald Trump:

Colorado: Clinton 50 percent, Trump 27 percent, Libertarian Party candidate Gary Johnson 15 percent, Green Party candidate Jill Stein 2 percent.

Florida: Clinton 54, Trump 28, Johnson 4, Stein 4.

North Carolina: Clinton 46, Trump 27, Johnson 19.

Pennsylvania: Clinton 45, Trump 22, Johnson 11, Stein 4.

Virginia: Clinton 44, Johnson 24, Trump 21, Stein 2.

[Poll: Democrats lead in Battleground Senate Races]

The poll also found that those voters saw Clinton as the clear winner of Monday’s debate with Trump.

Younger voters overwhelmingly supported Clinton’s Democratic primary challenger Sen. Bernie Sanders, and she has struggled to sway them after the Vermont independent dropped out of the race and endorsed her.

Sanders has campaigned for Clinton since the Democratic convention, most recently at the University of New Hampshire in Durham on Wednesday.

[Generation Gap: Can Clinton and Trump Reach Millennials?]

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said Tuesday that millennial interest in Johnson’s Libertarian campaign is keeping the race between Clinton and Trump close.

The California Democrat added that Clinton “is going to have to make her own case to them as well because you can only transfer so much,” a reference to Sanders’ efforts to convince his supporters to vote for Clinton.

Overall, Clinton held 6-point leads over Trump among likely voters in Colorado, Pennsylvania and Virginia in four-way contests. In both Florida and North Carolina, she had a smaller 2-point advantage, within the polls’ margins of error. (The North Carolina poll did not include Stein, who is running there as a write-in candidate.)

PPP interviewed likely voters on Sept. 27 and 28 through automated phone calls to landlines and online interviews of cell phone-only respondents. The poll surveyed 694 respondents in Colorado, 826 in Florida, 861 in North Carolina, 886 in Pennsylvania, and 811 in Virginia. The margins of error for the surveys were 3.7, 3.4, 3.3, 3.3, and 3.4 percentage points, respectively. 

Recent Stories

Judge blocks latest attempt to slash CFPB

Supreme Court to hear arguments over preventive care task force

Trump puts Italy’s Meloni in high-pressure role as bridge to EU on tariffs

Supreme Court to review Trump birthright citizenship order

At the Races: Only the young

California sues to stop tariffs levied under economic emergency