Harvard poll: Millennials want a Democrat in the White House

Caleb Diehl | Lewis & Clark College

Millennials have spoken -- and a majority prefer that a Democrat lead the country, according to a national poll released Thursday by the Harvard Institute of Politics.

The survey of 2,011 18- to 29-year-olds indicated that 56% prefer a Democrat for president, with 36% preferring a Republican -- a result similar to IOP's spring 2015 poll.

Additionally, young Democrats now give Bernie Sanders an edge over Hillary Clinton, while GOP Millennials have Ben Carson and Donald Trump in a statistical dead heat, with 20% of voters polled.

RELATED: Harvard spring poll finds Millennials have little faith in government, media

It's a huge jump for the self-described Democratic Socialist as just 1% of Millennial Democrats who said they're voting in the primary preferred Sanders in the April poll.

Carson and Tump's percentages give them a big lead in the field, as their closest competitors -- Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz -- captured 7% of Republicans Millennials polled. They were closely followed by Rand Paul and Jeb Bush, with 6% each. Carly Fiorina, Mike Huckabee and Rick Santorum polled at 3%; John Kasich, 2%; and Lindsey Graham, Chris Christie and George Pataki, 1%. (Bobby Jindal, who dropped out of the race last month, also landed at 1%.)

Overall, though, Millennials have been steadily losing interest in American politics since 2011. Only two in 10 considered themselves “politically active," the poll indicated, while just less than half (46%) said they're following the campaign “very” or “somewhat” closely.

“Disturbingly for me as a Millennial, young American engagement has dropped in the past four years,” said Ellen Robo, the student chair of the survey committee.

In other findings from the poll, 60% of Millennials said they would support sending U.S. ground troops to combat ISIS -- a 12-point surge from the spring. But only 16% of respondents said they would be willing to serve in the conflict.

“There’s a disconnect between what people want the country to do, and what they’re willing to do personally,” said John Della Volpe, director of polling at the IOP.

As for the American Dream, that once-sacrosanct ethos is sacrosanct no more: Some 49% of Millennials polled chose "dead" when asked if it the dream was alive or dead for them.

1/2 of #Millennial generation believe American Dream=DEAD for them. #HarvardIOPPoll I hope our leaders are listening pic.twitter.com/dRIvWmdTuE — John Della Volpe (@dellavolpe) December 10, 2015

The poll was conducted between Oct. 30 and Nov. 9. The IOP plans to release two more polls on Millennials before the 2016 presidential election.



Caleb Diehl is a student at Lewis & Clark College and a USA TODAY College breaking news correspondent.

This story originally appeared on the USA TODAY College blog, a news source produced for college students by student journalists. The blog closed in September of 2017.