South Carolina primary to test Biden’s strength among young voters
ORANGEBURG, S.C. (WCBD)- Anayia Whaley knows who she is voting for on Saturday.
The Claflin University senior, like many students who identify as Democrats, say they are planning to support Biden in the primaries but aren’t quite ready to commit to him come November.
“I’m really just looking at the data and trying to hear what our candidates have to say,” Whaley told News 2 as she waited for a get-out-the-vote event with Vice President Kamala Harris at South Carolina State University. “I’m definitely on one route [Biden] but I’m open to hearing other people’s opinions and hear them talk and see what they can do for our country.”
Young voters were a critical coalition for Biden in 2020 – he won 61 percent of voters between the ages of 18 and 29, according to AP VoteCast – and it is one that he hopes to secure again as he seeks a second term as the oldest president in U.S. history.
Lining up support among that demographic won’t come without its challenges, though. An NBC News national poll showed that Biden’s approval rating among voters ages 18 to 34 dropped from 46 percent in September to 31 percent in November.
“Young people as we know have always been fiercely independent,” John Della Volpe, director of polling at the Harvard Kennedy School Institute of Politics, told The Hill in November. “It’s a more cynical electorate with God knows how many more independent candidacies, which on the youth cohort are more likely to hurt Biden more than Trump.”
The dip certainly caught the attention of top Democrats, who have been crisscrossing the nation in recent months encouraging young people to turn out for the primaries.
“President Biden and I are counting on you,” Vice President Harris told the crowd Friday. “We are counting on you to vote and to get everyone you know to vote.”
Although young people lean left, they’re less likely to vote, and preventing them from turning out is crucial in close campaigns that hinge on narrow margins.
That fight has found its way to the Palmetto State, where the state’s Democratic primary on Feb. 3 will be the first test of Biden’s strength among young voters, especially Black voters.
“All eyes are on South Carolina right now and I hope you are fired up,” Democratic National Committee Chairman Jaime Harrison said on Friday, just one day before the primary.
But, while many students News 2 spoke with said they appreciate the work the administration has done to provide funding for Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and bolster minority representation in government, they also expressed disappointment with some of the administration’s policies, including its inability to fully cancel student loan debt.
“I know they had a thing with the student loan issue, but they couldn’t even change that,” SC State sophomore Winston James said.
But, perhaps the issue of greatest importance in young voters’ minds is foreign policy, specifically Biden’s response to the Israel-Hamas war.
In a December New York Times/Siena College poll, 46 percent of respondents ages 18 to 29 said they strongly disapprove of the way Biden is handling the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Victoria Jordan, an SC State senior who is one of two White House HBCU scholars on campus, agrees.
“I believe the administration is standing on the wrong side of history with this one,” Jordan said. “The whole world is watching and it’s a huge topic of conversation that isn’t really well spoken about by the Biden-Harris administration and I hope they clear the air in the room when they speak about it.”
Regardless, students attending Friday’s event said they are eager to have their voices heard and hope others in their generation feel the same.
“You have to put your vote in,” James said. “You never know what can happen. People don’t really understand the power they actually do have.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
