Data guru Harry Enten is questioning whether Taylor Swift’s endorsement of Kamala Harris will provide a much-needed boost among the youth vote for the 2024 Democratic Party’s presidential nominee. According to the CNN analyst, Harris has lagged far behind the margins by which the 81-year-old incumbent Joe Biden won young voters in the 2020 election.
“Why does Kamala Harris welcome Taylor Swift’s support, why does she need the help?” Enten said during a Thursday segment reviewing polling data. “Let’s just point out something that I have been noting all along during this campaign, and that is the underperformance that both Joe Biden—and now even Kamala Harris—has among young voters.”
The data, reviewed by Enten, shows Biden with a 28-point polling margin over Trump among voters aged 18 to 29 in September of 2020. However, by July this year, Biden’s margin had collapsed to just seven points. Meanwhile, his data for Harris shows her with only a weak improvement over Biden’s 2024 numbers, clocking a 15-point margin this month.
Despite the Swift endorsement, Enten remains skeptical that Harris’s margin among young voters will significantly improve or match Biden’s margins in 2020. “The bottom line is Kamala Harris is—in fact—not doing as well among young voters as you might expect a Democrat to necessarily be doing based upon history.”
In addition to the youth vote being less enthusiastic about Harris than perceived, Enten notes that in several crucial swing states—namely Pennsylvania and North Carolina—Republicans have reversed the Democratic registration advantage. In both states, Democrats held around a 500,000 voter advantage in 2020. That lead has been erased, with Republicans now holding around a 150,000 vote advantage in both states.
WATCH:
CNN’s Harry Enten Breaks Down Kamala Harris’ ‘Underperformance’ With Young Voters pic.twitter.com/oE5iujMlfQ
— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) September 12, 2024