Biden's young voter problem: They don't think he's listening

WASHINGTON • The magnitude of the United States' former vice-president Joe Biden's recent primary victories has obscured an important schism within the Democratic Party: between the older voters who carried Mr Biden to victory, and the younger voters who overwhelmingly rejected him.

The dividing line is around age 45, and it is as stark as a flipped switch.

In some states last Tuesday, Mr Biden won two-thirds or more of votes from those older than 45, while Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont won about two-thirds of votes from those younger than that.

Comparatively low turnout among young voters helped save Mr Biden in the primaries.

But in the general election, a similar lack of turnout could become a huge liability - a point Mr Sanders made explicitly last Wednesday as he announced that he would continue his campaign at least through the next debate today.

"I say to the Democratic establishment: In order to win in the future, you need to win the voters who represent the future of our country," Mr Sanders said. "You must speak to the issues of concern to them. You cannot simply be satisfied by winning the votes of people who are older."

Mr Biden's campaign and some of his supporters have acknowledged this. Unite the Country, a pro-Biden super political action committee (PAC), said in a memo last Wednesday that winning in November would depend on bringing young voters in.

And Mr Biden's wife, Mrs Jill Biden, said at a recent fund-raiser in Illinois that her husband was talking to his staff about "engaging the youth vote and coming up with some youth advocacy".

But Mr Biden has been campaigning for nearly a year to represent a party that young voters often prefer, and his lack of support among those voters has been evident for a long time.

"What I'm a little nervous that we're in the middle of right now is a repeat of 2016," said Ms Sarah Audelo, executive director of the Alliance for Youth Action, who worked on Mrs Hillary Clinton's campaign four years ago and said it did not invest enough in outreach to young voters during the primaries.

"What that meant was the campaign had to start from scratch in the general (election), and that is not something Joe Biden can afford to do."

Number of young Democrats in a poll of more than 30 from 17 states, ranging in age from 17 to 34, who said they would vote for Mr Biden.

Approximate percentage who said they would consider not voting, or voting for a third-party candidate, unless Mr Biden made significant concessions to the party's left wing.

The New York Times spoke with more than 30 young Democrats from 17 states last week, ranging in age from 17 to 34. Most of them said they had voted for Mr Sanders or planned to do so if he stayed in the race through their state's primary.

Some had voted for Senator Elizabeth Warren before she dropped out. Only two said they wanted Mr Biden to be the nominee.

And while many said they would reluctantly vote for Mr Biden in November for the sake of beating President Donald Trump, about one-third said they would consider staying home or voting for a third-party candidate, unless Mr Biden made significant concessions to the party's left wing.

They were well aware of his plans to address climate change, student debt and other issues that matter to them - plans that would help Mr Biden appeal to young voters, his wife said. But those plans, the young Democrats said, were not the solution to the generational gap among the candidates' supporters; they were a cause.

"The plan the Biden campaign put forward for climate change is nowhere near good enough to save our earth," said Mr Benjamin Brumer, 28, who lives in California and said he felt hopeless about his future under either Mr Trump or Mr Biden. "It will be hard, if not impossible, for them to convince me to vote for Biden. But a good first step towards reconciliation would be to make bolder promises for solving climate change."

Ms Lindsay Huber, 29, who lives in Oregon, said that at an "absolute bare minimum", to win her vote, Mr Biden needed to stop accepting super PAC money and endorse both the Medicare For All proposal and the Green New Deal resolution.

"And it would still be difficult to trust that he's being truthful, because he has decades of racist, sexist, corporatist, warmongering votes," Ms Huber said. "To win us back, the Democratic Party needs to actually listen to us and serve us. Or else they need to die, and we will create a new party ourselves."

Beyond the disconnect between young progressives' ideals and Mr Biden's more moderate proposals, there is also a deeper problem: While Mr Sanders has actively engaged young people, Mr Biden has never given much indication that he is seeking their votes at all.

At times, he has appeared openly disdainful or condescending towards them.

Groups that work with young voters said winning their votes would require speaking more to the policies they want to see enacted, but also considering them in event planning, advertising and communications.

"It's going to be up to the campaign to craft messages for young people and develop a really good surrogate programme," said Dr Anne Moses, founder and president of Ignite, which encourages young women to enter politics. "I don't think Biden is the best person to speak directly to young people."

NYTIMES