Associated Press reporter Julie Pace broke down Hillary Clinton's major struggles with young voters Tuesday as laid out in a new poll from GenForward of voters aged 18 to 30, saying she wasn't giving younger people a reason to support her.
The AP reported:
Just 26 percent of young whites and 49 percent of Hispanics have a positive opinion of the former secretary of state. Both groups overwhelmingly say she is not trustworthy.
"I just don’t see her being honest and straightforward," said Alexander Tomas, an 18-year-old Hispanic from Fort Worth, Texas. A recent high school graduate, Tomas supported Sanders in the state’s Democratic primary, but says he’s now undecided about his choice in November’s general election.
On MSNBC's Morning Joe, Katty Kay asked Pace, who first wrote about the poll, why Clinton was having so much trouble with younger voters. Younger Americans are typically a reliable block of support for Democrats, and President Obama built a strong coalition of support from them en route to electoral victories in 2008 and 2012.
"One of the big things and this really won't come as a huge surprise, is they just do not find her honest and trustworthy," Pace said. "They don't believe that she's straightforward. They believe that she is part of the same establishment political system, that as I said, they don't feel represents their interests right now and so she can take away from this some good news, which is that they just believe that Donald Trump is so outside of the mainstream of their lives that they could never vote for him.
"But she's really struggling still to give young voters a proactive reason to come out and support her that's not just about opposing Donald Trump."
When asked if the endorsements of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.) or Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D., Mass.) would be able to help Clinton, Pace said the support could help Clinton, but Clinton isn't a draw on her own.
"These young people need a reason to actually come out and support her and right now Hillary Clinton alone isn't giving them that reason," Pace said.