More than 8 million young people who were pre-teens when former President Donald Trump took office in 2017 and were in high school during President Joe Biden’s term will be eligible to vote for the first time in the 2024 presidential election. Katherine Haenschen, assistant professor of political science and communications studies at Northeastern, says she expects more young people to start paying attention to the presidential race after Thursday’s first of two debates. “We’ll start to see the polling start to shift a little bit,” Haenschen says.
Trump currently leads Biden by less than 2 percentage points, according to the Real Clear Politics polling average. However, among young voters ages 18-29, Biden leads 46% to 24%, according to Statistica. Having lived through both administrations, how will the newest voters cast their ballots, and will their votes affect the result of the election?
