President Biden’s approval rating among young Americans has dropped within the last year — with just over a third now happy with his performance in the White House, a new Harvard poll released Monday shows.
The national poll, conducted by the Institute of Politics at Harvard Kennedy School, found 36% of registered voters between ages 18 and 29 approve of the 80-year-old president’s performance.
It’s a five-point drop since last spring, when his rating stood at 41%, and a three-point decline since the fall (39%), according to the poll.
The survey, which comes in the same week Biden is expected to announce his 2024 re-election bid, shows 27% of young Americans approve of his handling of gun safety.
At the same time, nearly half of those polled indicated they had felt unsafe within the past month and 40% feared “being a victim of gun violence or a mass shooting.”
Just over 40% said police officers made them feel “more safe” in their community and the majority of those polled (57%) opposed “defunding police departments” in their communities.
More black Americans indicated their local cops made them feel less safe (35%) than more safe (23%). Forty percent said they weren’t sure.
President Biden’s approval rating among young Americans dropped to 36% within the last year, a new poll put out by the Institute of Politics at Harvard Kennedy School found. Getty Images
It is a five-point drop since last spring, when his rating stood at 41%, the poll shows.
On gun safety, more than three in five young Americans support stricter gun laws in general, according to the poll. And half support implementing stricter law enforcement policies that would see firearms only being given to cops with special training.
Meanwhile, back on Biden, the poll shows roughly a quarter of young Americans approve of his handling of the economy and inflation — at 28% and 22%, respectively.
Just over a third approve of his handling of race relations (38%) and of the war in Ukraine (37%).
Nearly four in 10 young Americans approve of the performance of Democrats in Congress, while only three in 10 approve of Republicans in Congress, according to pollsters.
The poll — conducted between March 13 and 22 — surveyed 2,069 young Americans and had a margin of error of plus or minus 2.86%.
The poll also shows nearly half of young Americans indicated they had felt unsafe within the past month and 40% feared “being a victim of gun violence or a mass shooting.”
The release of the poll comes as speculation continues to mount that Biden will formally announce the launch of his presidential re-election campaign at some point this week.
Biden and his team were said to be finalizing plans to release a video announcement on Tuesday — the four-year anniversary of the start of his successful 2020 campaign, Washington Post reported last week.
Currently the oldest president in US history, Biden would be 86 if he is re-elected and leaves office as scheduled in January 2029.
