Younger voters are solidly in play in this year’s presidential election, according to a new Harvard poll. Via the Associated Press:
In 2008, Obama had a 34-point advantage over Republican Sen. John McCain among voters under age 30. He won about two-thirds of the vote in that age group.
But a new Harvard poll suggests the president may face a harder sales job with younger voters this time around. Obama led Romney by 12 points among those ages 18-24, according to the survey. Among those in the 25-29 age group, Obama held a 23-point advantage.
It's an opening Republicans hope to exploit by focusing on young people's disillusionment with the candidate who promised "hope" and "change."
President Obama appears to be conscious of the problem:
Obama has spent the past week casting himself as a defender of the middle class and urging Congress to keep the 3.4 percent student loan interest rate from doubling to 6.8 percent in July. He rallied students during visits Tuesday to college campuses in North Carolina and Colorado, to be followed by a stop in Iowa on Wednesday. Obama carried all three states in 2008, and they are considered among several that could help decide November's election.
The Associated Press sees an opening:
That opens the door for Romney and the Republican Party.
Consider North Carolina. Obama won it by fewer than 14,000 votes, making him the first Democrat to carry the state since 1976.
A prominent conservative group called Generation Opportunity targeted North Carolina last week with a grassroots information tour through the state’s college campuses and community colleges. Generation Opportunity president Paul T. Conway, a former chief of staff of the U.S. Department of Labor during the George W. Bush administration, tells the Free Beacon that young voters in North Carolina will make a pivotal difference.
"We do field surveys of college students, non-college students, and young professionals, and these numbers from Harvard are very consistent with our own polling" Conway says. "The number-one need issue for young people is the high cost of gas."
Conway plans to expand his organization, which provides election-year information materials to people at or under the age of 29, with a full-time staffed operation in North Carolina and other battleground states.
Of Obama and the Harvard poll, Conway says, "When your alma mater tells you something, you might as well listen."