Gen Z swing state voters demand more from Biden on student loans
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Young voters are not impressed by President Biden's record on student loan forgiveness, according to new survey results by Bloomberg/Morning Consult.
Why it matters: Securing and motivating young, largely-Democratic voters could be crucial for Biden's reelection chances. The poll found former President Trump outpolling Biden in seven out of seven swing states.
Zoom in: 43% of Generation Z voters in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin say Biden is not doing enough to address the burden of student-loan payments.
- These 18- to 26-years-olds seem unmoved or unaware of the more than $130 billion in student loans Biden has forgiven despite the Supreme Court striking his sweeping student loan forgiveness plan this year.
- 42% say they've seen, read or heard "not much" or "not at all" about the forgiveness, according to the poll.
- 59% of those Gen Z respondents "strongly" or "somewhat" support the forgiveness based on what they know.
Zoom out: Biden trails Trump by an average of five percentage points overall across the seven swing-states surveyed.
- Trump's lead increases to seven percentage points when third-party and independent candidates are included.
The bottom line: The president's handling of the economy has long been Americans' No. 1 election issue, and the new survey spells trouble for Biden.
- When results were broken down by generation and then race, every group except Black voters said they trust Trump more than Biden to handle the economy.
Methodology: Bloomberg News/Morning Consult surveyed 4,935 registered voters in the seven swing states of Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin from Nov. 27 to Dec. 6, 2023.
- The margin of error for swing state voters overall is +/- 1 percentage point and for Gen Z swing state voters it is +/- 4 percentage points.
