Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., whose presidential candidacy languished for the first few months of her campaign, is starting to climb in polls, and her proposal to cancel most student loan debt may be a major reason why.
On April 22, the day Warren released her plan for free college and canceling student debt, she was down in sixth place for the Democratic nomination in the RealClearPolitics average. I criticized the plan at the time, but also noted that the political logic was clear. Free college proposals only benefit people who are in or near college, or parents of kids in or nearing college, whereas student loans are a major burden on younger Americans in their 20s, 30s, and early 40s. Warren has been hammering the issue hard, and in the most recent group of polls, she’s now in third place, behind only Joe Biden and Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt.
A further breakdown of the polling by age suggests that she’s received a particularly large bump from those between 18 and 49, who would be the most direct beneficiaries of any sort of student debt cancellation.
A Quinnipiac poll taken in late March found Warren in a distant fifth place, at just 4%, and that 4% support was the same for those younger and older than 50. In that poll, Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., was at 9% among the 18-49 crowd, Beto O’Rourke was at 15%, Biden was at 22%, and Sanders led with 26%.
However, in the Quinnipiac poll released this week, Warren moved to third place, with 13% overall. But there is now a significant gap in her support among older and younger voters. Though she did go up, from 4% to 9% among the 50 and over crowd, she soared to 18% among the 18-49 crowd, closing in on Biden and Sanders, who are tied at 23% among the age group.
There are, of course, many other factors that could be contributing to her gains in this dynamic race with so many candidates. But it’s also true that she has been doing a lot to keep emphasizing the student loan issue.
On Wednesday, for instance, she posted this video of a supporter calling up and saying he donated $20 because of the student loan issue.
Logan from Virginia chipped in $20 to our grassroots campaign, so I called to say thank you. We talked about the issue that pulled Logan in: Student loan debt. pic.twitter.com/6nMXZPVlCF
— Elizabeth Warren (@ewarren) May 22, 2019
