Survey: Harris Erases Trump’s Lead on Economy among Younger Americans

Younger Americans do not appear to hold Vice President Kamala Harris responsible for what many of them believe is a worsening U.S. economy under the Biden-Harris administration, according to a new survey from CNBC and Generation Lab.

The latest quarterly Youth & Money Survey, taken after Biden dropped out of the race in July, revealed that 69 per cent of Americans between 18 and 34 years old believed the economy was getting worse under President Joe Biden.

But they also think the candidate best able to improve the economy was Harris, not Republican nominee and former President Donald Trump.
Harris was viewed as the best candidate for the economy by 41 per cent of poll respondents, while 40 per cent chose Trump and another 19 per cent said the economy would do better under someone else, like third party candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

The results amounted to a seven-point swing in Democrats’ favor on the economy since CNBC asked the same question in May’s Youth & Money Survey.
 At that time, only 34 per cent of respondents believed Biden, then the likely Democratic nominee, was the best candidate to boost the economy, with 40 per cent choosing Trump and 25 per cent saying Kennedy.

The shift in support for Harris was even wider among respondents overall. If the presidential election were held today, the latest poll, according to the CNBC found Harris holding a 12-point lead over Trump among younger Americans, 46 per cent to 34 per cent, while 21 per cent said they would vote for either Kennedy or another candidate.

Three months ago, the same survey found Trump and Biden effectively tied, with 36 per cent for Biden and 35 per cent for Trump, and 29 per cent planning to vote for Kennedy.
The 10 per cent jump in support for Harris yesterday, up from where Biden was in May, was all the more notable because of how significant the economy is to the voting choices of younger Americans.