Fifty-eight percent of younger Americans approve of President Barack Obama’s job performance but many feel differently about his handling of specific issues, a national poll has found.
Harvard University’s Institute of Politics said on Thursday at 52 percent of 18- to 29-year-olds polled disapprove of Obama’s handling of the economy and healthcare and 55 disapprove on the topic of Afghanistan.
The poll, taken before Obama said this week he was sending 30,000 additional troops to Afghanistan, found 66 percent of respondents opposed such a buildup.
Support from young voters in 2008 helped sweep Obama into the White House. Exit polls showed Obama won the 18- to 29-year-old segment by a 34-point margin, more than five times the difference of Obama’s next best age group.
“This is a voting block now critical to the outcome of our elections and they know it,” said Bill Purcell, director of Harvard’s Institute of Politics.
The online survey of 2,807 U.S. citizens was conducted between November 4 and November 16. It had a margin of error of 2.2 percentage points.
The poll is available at https://www.iop.harvard.edu/
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