Half of Gen Z voters say they will vote for Vice President Kamala Harris in November, while a third say they will vote for former President Donald Trump — a wider gap for the Democratic nominee than some other polls this year, but not quite at 2020 levels for the party, according to a new survey of registered voters under 30.
The results of the NBC News Stay Tuned Gen Z poll, conducted by SurveyMonkey, come as young voters face new economic and cultural challenges in 2024, including rising costs and concerns about debt that are causing delays in some critical life events.
One in ten respondents said they would not vote in the presidential election.
Harris is supported by 60% of young voters who say they are almost certain to vote in the presidential election. That number matches the 60% of 18- to 29-year-olds Joe Biden won over Trump in the 2020 election, according to NBC News exit polls.
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That’s a far cry from how Biden fared in some 2024 polls before he dropped out of the race — and the new poll, which surveyed 2,617 people online, suggests some key reasons why. In total, 73% of Gen Z voters said they would support an upper age limit for candidates to run for president, while 27% said they would oppose such a limit.
Among those who said they supported an age limit for the presidency, 54% said the age limit should be lower than 65.
Today, in the Harris-Trump race, the gender gap among Gen Z voters is significant. Young women said they would vote for Harris for president by a 30-point margin. Young men also said they favored Harris, but only by a 4-point margin over Trump.
There is no significant difference between the two groups in terms of enthusiasm to vote; about 55% of young men and women say they are “absolutely certain” that they will vote in November.
About 8 in 10 Gen Z voters who identify as Democrats or Republicans say they will vote for their party’s nominee in November. Support for the two candidates is evenly split between Harris and Trump among independents, with both candidates winning about 25% of young voters.
It is important to note that 34% of young independents who are not close to one party or the other say they will not vote in the presidential election.
Overall, an overwhelming majority of young voters who responded (88%) said they were likely to vote in the presidential election, including 55% who said they were almost certain to vote.
Harris has strong support among college graduates, leading Trump by 26 points in that group (56% to 30%). Additionally, just 5% of college graduates say they will not vote for the president in November. Harris also does well among students currently enrolled in college, leading Trump by 25 points (54% to 29%).
Support between the two candidates is tied at 41% among young voters without a college degree who are not currently enrolled in school.
How Generation Z is doing politics
In the past year, three-quarters of respondents have participated in the political process in ways that were not directly related to campaigns or elections, while one-quarter have not participated in the political process in any way. Some of the ways Gen Z participates in the political process include unfollowing celebrities or politicians on social media (37%), signing a petition (34%), boycotting a product or company (32%), sharing political opinions or news articles on social media (31%), and unfollowing friends or family on social media (29%).
Fully 54% of Gen Z voters who said they participated in the political process voted for Harris, compared to 33% for Trump.
Nearly 7 in 10 Gen Z voters said the country was ready to elect a female president, the poll found, with 38% saying the country was definitely ready. And 3 in 10 respondents said the country was not ready for a female president.
Seven in ten voters who said they were definitely ready to elect a woman president support Harris, and the same proportion of voters who said they were definitely ready to elect a woman president support Harris. not are ready to support Trump.
When it comes to the candidates’ running mates, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz is the clear favorite among young voters. Three in 10 voters rated Harris’s choice of Walz as “excellent,” while a similar proportion rated Trump’s choice of Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance as “poor.”
Overall, 56% of Gen Z voters have a positive view of Harris’ choice for vice president, compared to just 33% who have a positive view of Trump’s choice. Twenty percent of younger voters have no opinion on Walz or Vance.
New eligible voters back Harris
Voters under 30 who did not vote in the 2020 presidential election because they were not yet eligible plan to vote for Harris over Trump by a 26-point margin (57% vs. 31%, respectively).
Among those who were eligible but didn’t vote in 2020, the result was uneven: 30% said they supported Harris and 27% said they supported Trump, well within the poll’s margin of error. Of that group, 36% said they wouldn’t vote in November.
Three-quarters of Biden voters in 2020 said they would support Harris, and 14% said they would vote for Trump this time around. Similarly, 73% of Trump voters in 2020 said they would vote for him again, but 23% of Trump voters in 2020 said they planned to vote for Harris in November.
This NBC News Stay Tuned Gen Z poll was Powered by SurveyMonkeythe fast, intuitive feedback management platform where 20 million questions are answered every day. It was conducted online from August 23 to 30 among a national sample of 2,617 registered voters ages 18 to 29. Data were weighted to population totals among those ages 18 to 29 for gender, race, census region (all from the American Community Survey), and political affiliation (from the Cooperative Election Study). The estimated margin of error for this survey is plus or minus 3.1 percentage points. The sampling error associated with subgroup results is higher.
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