Harris leads Trump by 20 points with younger Americans, new CNBC Generation Lab survey finds

Exactly two weeks before Election Day, a new CNBC Generation Lab survey finds that Vice President Kamala Harris has grown her advantage in recent months over Republican Donald Trump among Americans between the ages of 18 and 34. 

The latest quarterly Youth & Money Survey shows Harris with a 20 percentage point lead over the former president, with 60% of respondents saying they would vote for Harris in a head-to-head matchup, and 40% saying they would cast a ballot for Trump.

Faced with a similar question in July’s Youth & Money Survey, only 46% of respondents selected Harris, while 34% said they would be voting for Trump. Another 21% in that poll said they would vote for then-candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. or another third party option.

Kennedy formally dropped his bid for president on Aug. 23, and respondents in the latest poll were not offered a third option.

Harris’ 20 point lead over Trump in the latest poll is in line with the margin by which President Joe Biden ultimately won younger voters in his 2020 presidential election victory. Facing an incumbent Trump, Biden won voters age 18 to 39 years old by roughly 20 points, according to Pew Research Center data.

The latest poll results also hint at an enthusiasm gap among young voters, which Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, are working hard to close.

When pollsters asked the question, “How do you feel about the slate of Presidential candidates,” a sizable 38% of the respondents chose, “I am disappointed.” Another 41% of the survey sample reported being “I am neutral.” Only one-fifth of those polled chose the third option, “I am excited,” to describe their feelings about the Harris-Trump match-up.

There were also red flags in the poll for Democratic field organizers, who are mounting a massive “Get Out The Vote” effort to make sure younger voters get to the polls and vote.

The Youth & Money survey found that 32% said they still were not sure where and how they would vote.  Another 31% planned to cast their ballots “in person on Election Day.”  Almost one-in-four of those surveyed said they would be voting by mail, at 24%. And another 13% said they would vote early in person.

An NBC News survey recently reported that almost half of Americans planned to vote early, either in person or by mail, with a majority of those voters expected to cast ballots for Harris.

On the issues, younger Americans selected job creation and the economy, taxes and trust in government as their top three most important issues when voting for president. Asked to choose three out of a dozen options, 53% named job creation, 39% included taxes in their top three, and trust in government was key for 33% of respondents.

Beyond these, immigration was in the top three for 27% of those polled, and the environment for 26% of them. Student debt was also important, making the top three issues for 25% of respondents.

The survey also found that a significant slice of the young electorate believes the results of down-ballot races are either very important or somewhat important.

Control of both the House and Senate are up for grabs this November, and cities and towns across the country will vote on thousands of local elected positions and ballot initiatives.

For each of the four categories of races that were polled here, Senate, House of Representatives, gubernatorial races and city and town elections, between 65% and 69% of respondents said the outcomes were either very or somewhat important to their voting districts.

Another significant finding of the Youth & Money Survey is how much TikTok has gained on other social media platforms as a source of election information for younger voters.

For the first time, respondents listed TikTok alongside TV news and websites as their primary source of news about the election. The viral video site that currently faces a potential ban in the United States far outpaced Facebook and X, formerly Twitter, as one of the top places where respondents said they got most of their information about the election.

Asked to choose “up to three” options for news sources, 45% included internet news sites, 39% included TV news among their choices, and 36% listed TikTok among their three.

Other notable sources were speaking to friends, cited by 31% of respondents and Instagram by 28% of them.

X and Facebook were among the top three for just 20% and 16% of those surveyed, respectively.

The CNBC Generation Lab quarterly Youth & Money Survey interviewed 1,021 respondents, with a 3.1% margin of error.