Obama preferred by young voters over Romney, says poll

A new poll found that President Barack Obama leads Republican presidential frontrunner Mitt Romney by 17 percentage points among millenials, according to The Atlantic.

The national survey, conducted by Harvard's Institute of Politics, found that Obama had gained six points on his lead in November among voters between the ages of 18 and 29 years, amounting to the support of 43 percent of respondents, compared to Romney's 26 percent.

The poll also found that 43 percent of respondents in that age group predicted that Obama will win re-election, as opposed to 27 percent who predicted that he would lose, a reversal from November when 36 percent thought he would lose and 30 percent thought he would win.

The Atlantic noted that the president also did especially well among Hispanic voters, with a 39 percent lead over Romney, while white voters of that age remained unsure. He also did better among voters between the ages of 25 and 29, compared to those between 18 and 24.

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The institute's director, Trey Grayson, said in a statement, "Over the last several months, we have seen more of the millennial vote begin to solidify around President Obama and Democrats in Congress," according to Bloomberg. He added, "There has been effectively no change in their support for Mitt Romney and Republicans in Congress."

The survey was conducted online between March 23 and April 9, with 3,096 participants taking part and a margin of error of plus or minus 1.7 percentage points, according to Bloomberg.

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Around 58 percent of those surveyed indicated that their primary national concern was "jobs and the economy." During this period of political deadlock, 38 percent of the youth surveyed trusted the United Nations "to do the right thing all or most of the time," as opposed to 27 percent who trusted the government, 23 percent who trusted Congress and 13 percent who trusted Wall Street.

The survey is in contrast to a poll released by the Public Religion Research Institute on April 19, which showed that less than half of those between 18 years and 24 years wanted Obama to win re-election. His lead in that poll over a genereic Republican was only 7 percentage points.

The Atlantic noted that Obama won the votes of those between the ages of 18 and 24 by a 34 point margin over John McCain in 2008.

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