In Shift, Millennial Voters Want GOP to Run Congress

Harvard poll finds small lead for Republicans
By John Johnson,  Newser Staff
Posted Oct 30, 2014 4:38 PM CDT
In Shift, Millennial Voters Want GOP to Run Congress
In this file photo, voters head to cast their ballots in Davenport, Iowa.   (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall, File)

Republicans might find support in an unusual place in next week's election: among millennials. A new poll by Harvard's Institute of Politics shows that 18- to 29-year-olds who will likely vote on Tuesday prefer a GOP-run Congress. The margin is small, with 51% favoring the GOP and 47% favoring Democrats, but it's a noticeable shift from a poll just ahead of the 2010 midterms. In that one, those who wanted Democratic control were up 55-43.

That's a "stunning turnaround," writes Ron Fournier at the National Journal, but he adds that Republicans shouldn't celebrate too much. Generally speaking, millennials don't like Republicans, and "the long-view IOP findings suggest that neither party is poised to win the largest generation in US history—a pragmatic, demanding, relatively nonideological electorate raised in an age of terrorism, war, and government dysfunction." In short, then, consider the youth vote "up for grabs," says the Harvard group's director of polling in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. (More millennials stories.)

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