Teenagers ages 13-17 split over party alignment: Poll
A new poll from nonprofit ThinkYoung finds that teenagers under 18 are split on party identity.
Roughly 24 percent of the teenage children said the Democratic Party represented their ideals well, 24 percent said the same of Republicans and 23 percent said neither party represents them well. Another 26 percent said they were not sure.
Similar to the adult population, party preferences differed among genders, with 26 percent of females and 20 percent of the boys preferring Democrats. It flipped for Republicans, with 29 percent of males and 20 percent of the girls preferring Republicans.
More than half of the respondents also said the country was headed in the wrong direction, compared to the less than 11 percent who said it was going in the right direction.
“While it is rare to survey minors on their voting preferences, doing so can provide valuable insights looking forward: we can learn more about what is shaping their political views and assess their awareness and understanding of key social and political issues,” the authors wrote in the survey.
In terms of the 2024 presidential election, 53 percent of the teenagers said they were somewhat or very satisfied with their candidate options, while 47 percent were not very satisfied or not satisfied at all.
Nearly 37 percent of respondents said they would have voted for Vice President Harris, and 35 percent said they would have voted for President-elect Trump; 27 percent said they would have abstained from voting or voted for a third-party candidate.
However, for those who said they would not choose to vote, only 22 percent said it would be because there isn’t a candidate they would want to vote for. More popular reasons to not vote included not being very political (26 percent) and not knowing enough (24 percent).
Nearly two-thirds of those surveyed said they get their information from social media platforms such as TikTok, Instagram and Snapchat, and nearly half also reported getting information from family and friends. Local TV and news websites were less popular, at 26 percent and 37 percent, respectively.
Regarding issues relevant to the up-and-coming voting bloc, nearly half of respondents said inflation was the biggest issue, followed by women’s reproductive rights, gun violence and health care. But survey results on who would handle each issue better were split.
Trump had about a 13-point lead on Harris on inflation, while Harris led on reproductive rights by 49 points, gun violence by 7 points and health care by 19 points.
Among the girls, 44 percent said inflation was their top issue, followed by 35 percent saying it was reproductive rights and 22 percent saying it was gun violence. More boys saw inflation as the more relevant issue, with nearly 57 percent naming it as their top issue, followed by 16 percent naming health care and 15 percent naming gun violence.
Reproductive rights were the least important issue to the boys; less than 7 percent ranked it as their top issue.
The ThinkYoung poll was conducted between Oct. 4 and Nov. 4, receiving responses from 1,800 teenagers under 18. The margin of error for the survey is 2 percentage points.
Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
