Four in ten women between the ages of 18-29 now describe themselves as “liberal” — and have moved increasingly leftward on issues like abortion, guns and the climate in just the past decade, according to a new Gallup study.
And, what’s just as fascinating — at least to me — is that men aged 18-29 have actually grown less liberal over the past two decades even as their female cohort has moved significantly to the ideological left.
Intriguing, right?
This Gallup chart documents the ideological alignment of young women — synced up to major events in politics — over the last 20 years:
What appears to have moved young women further to the left is the election of Donald Trump in 2016. Which, obviously, could have real ramifications in this race given that, well, Trump is the Republican presidential nominee.
The question isn’t really whether Vice President Kamala Harris will win young voters — and young women in particular. The real intrigue is how much she will win them by.
In 2020, Joe Biden beat Trump among 18-29 year old voters by 24 points. In 2016, Hillary Clinton won the age cohort by a smaller 19%.
In a September poll of 18-29 year olds conducted by NBC, Harris held an even narrower 16 point edge over Trump.
Harris’ margin among young voters needs to improve if she wants to win. Could Taylor Swift’s endorsement help?
I wouldn’t rule it out! Swift has appeal across the gender and age spectrum but 18-29 year old women are one of the bases of her fan support. More than 337,000 people visited Vote.gov directly from Swift’s recent Instagram post endorsing Harris and urging people to register to vote. That’s stunning!
If you are looking for a single demographic group that could signal whether Harris is going to beat Trump, her performance among young voters — and young female voters in particular — is a very good one to watch.
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The Morning: Young women are getting *much* more liberal