Jarrell Dillard | Bloomberg News (TNS)
WASHINGTON — They are burdened by student debt. They are unable to buy homes. They face higher living expenses. And they want President Joe Biden to pay attention.
At a time when Donald Trump is eating into Biden’s 2020 advantage with young adults, the increasing list of complaints among those between 18 and 29 is a troubling sign for Biden as he looks for a second term.
People in that age group are more than twice as likely to mention the economy as their main concern compared with older adults in recent Gallup data. And while all voters are more concerned about the economy now than they were before the 2020 presidential election, the pessimism has increased the most among those under 30.
That worry is shown in polls. Trump is currently ahead of the president 47% to 40% with voters aged 18 to 34 in swing states, according to a March Bloomberg News/Morning Consult poll. By comparison, Biden won 61% of voters under 30 in the last cycle.
Despite the November election being months away and attitudes being able to change, there’s no doubt Biden will need support from Generation Z and Millennial voters to win.
Incumbents get the blame when voters are unhappy with the economy. The challenge for Biden is that even though economic growth has been strong in the past year, the job market is strong and the inflation rate is dropping, polls after polls reveal that many people don’t feel that way.
Younger Americans have a long list of obstacles: limited action on student-loan forgiveness, the highest interest rates since they were very young and costly rents.
Older Americans, who are more likely to live in homes they own with low mortgage rates and who have benefited from years of housing and stock market growth, are less negative about the economy. The different financial situations of generations after the coronavirus pandemic may give Biden a guide on how to focus his political message on young adults.
Christian Martin, a 22-year-old college senior from Atlanta, said he hasn’t yet felt the impact of Biden’s economic policies. He’s concerned about making student-loan payments after he graduates while keeping up with the elevated costs of living.
“If Biden can address the issues that the youth are feeling, then the turnout can be stronger than what it’s projected to be,” he said in an interview. “This is Biden’s chance to hear what we have to say, because that’s essentially all it is, you know, unfulfilled promises.”
Biden’s plan to forgive billions of dollars in student debt was rejected last year by the Supreme Court, which turned down one of his main initiatives as going beyond his power.
“The President is fighting to lower costs for young Americans — forgiving student debt, lowering health and eliminating extra fees,” Seth Schuster, a Biden campaign spokesperson, said by email. “Meanwhile, Donald Trump appointed the Supreme Court Justices who denied student-debt relief and ensured that young people now have less rights than the generations before them.”
In a statement, a spokesperson for the Trump campaign named Karoline Leavitt said that “President Trump will make a secure, successful, and free country that helps all young people achieve their American Dream.”
The pandemic disrupted the economy when young voters were just entering adulthood, threatening their job opportunities as businesses locked down and complicating their housing options as rents soared.
“They experienced a more significant impact of COVID itself in a direct economic way,” said Kei Kawashima-Ginsberg, director of Tufts University’s Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning and Engagement. “Whether it’s gas, or housing, or rent or health care, they’re having a really hard time affording that because of the lack of saved wealth.”
Inflation has decreased significantly in the past year, including for essentials such as food, but prices remain significantly higher than they were before the 2020 election. And while wages have increased for all age groups in recent years, young adults have the lowest earnings as well as fewer assets.
A large part of those wage increases have also been consumed by higher rent expenses, which increased about 18% between October 2020 and January 2024, according to Redfin. Buying a property is increasingly unattainable for many young adults, with home prices up 21% over the same period, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. Swing-state voters ages 18 to 34 are more likely than any other age group to consider housing costs as important for their vote in 2024, according to the Bloomberg News/Morning Consult poll.
Debt is also worsening some younger Americans’ perspectives about the economy, according to EY Chief Economist Gregory Daco. Adults in their twenties and thirties have higher rates of credit-card debt that have deepened into serious delinquency, meaning the debt is 90 days or more past due, according to data from the New York Fed.
Many young adults are making payments on federal student debt that they had hoped would be forgiven by Biden’s plan. The White House has used more specific methods to approve nearly $144 billion in forgiveness, targeting specific groups, including those with disabilities, some former for-profit college students, and public servants who have been paying their loans for years.
Student loans and rent prices are burdensome for Ariela Lara, an 18-year-old high school senior from San Leandro, California, as she considers which college to attend. Lara said her family cannot afford to take on debt, so she will attend the school that offers her the most in aid.
“As I’ve been entering this world of adulthood, it’s difficult to achieve financial stability in our country,” she said, adding that climate change and the economy are her top concerns as she considers her first vote in a presidential election. “We’re telling Biden to wake up and to start saying that he needs the youth vote. He needs us immensely.”
(Christian Hall contributed to this story.)
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