Democrats losing support among millennial voters, new poll suggests

A new poll suggests that Democrat support among millennial has dropped since the 2016 election.



Scroll through to see the best jobs for millennials, according to U.S. News & World Report A new poll suggests that Democrat support among millennial has dropped since the 2016 election.



Scroll through to see the best jobs for millennials, according to U.S. News & World Report Photo: DOUG MILLS /NYT Photo: DOUG MILLS /NYT Image 1 of / 28 Caption Close Democrats losing support among millennial voters, new poll suggests 1 / 28 Back to Gallery

It's no secret that Democrats have a lot of hope vested in millennials, the youngest and now largest group voters in the country, to carry out a blue wave in upcoming elections.

But Democrat footing among millennials may be less solid than previously thought, a recent Reuters/Ipsos opinion poll suggests.

In the past two years, support for Democrats over Republicans for Congress slipped by about 9 percent among the 18-34 age group, the poll shows.

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The loss in support for Democrats represents a plunge from 55 percent in 2016 to 46 percent in 2018, according to the nationwide survey of more than 16,000 registered voters.

That doesn't mean America's youngest voters are crossing party lines in droves, however. The same poll shows millennial support for Republicans ticked upward by just 1 percentage point within the same period, from 27 percent to 28 percent.

In fact, the biggest change in the two-year period were millennials who answered "don't know/other," which jumped eight points.

Two University of Texas/Texas Tribune polls between February 2016 and February 2018 show that 18-29 millennials in Texas saw a slight decrease in Democratic Party favorability. The data show that millennials who viewed the Democrats as either very favorable or somewhat favorable dropped from 41 percent to 37 percent in 2018.

Fernando Ramirez is a reporter for Chron.com and the Houston Chronicle. You can follow him on Twitter at @fernramirez93.