While Joe Biden is said to be mulling over a third presidential bid, college students are hoping President Obama’s right-hand man will decide against it.
According to a new survey commissioned by Chegg, the California-based online textbook company, 54 percent of college students said Vice President Biden should not enter the race, citing concerns that he would “split the Dems” and/or is unable to beat Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton.
Forty percent of the survey’s undergraduate respondents said Biden should “absolutely” launch his own presidential campaign and 6 percent were unsure who Joe Biden is.
Biden first ran for president in 1988 while serving as a Democratic senator from Delaware. He later withdrew from the race less than a month into his campaign after reports surfaced that he had plagiarized one of his speeches. The former senator ran again in 2008 only to drop out after placing fifth in the Iowa caucuses.
In the same survey of students enrolled at accredited two or four-year public colleges and universities, 42 percent of respondents identified Clinton as the candidate most likely to secure the presidency, followed by Bernie Sanders at 17 percent and Donald Trump at 10 percent.
The greatest area of agreement occurred when respondents were asked about Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump; 60 percent said the real estate magnate’s campaign “won’t go anywhere” as opposed to 14 percent who said he “has a shot and should be taken seriously.”
Despite their lack of support for Biden, the traditionally left-leaning demographic remains skeptical of Clinton. Only 35 percent of millennials, ages 18-34, view the former secretary of state as “honest and trustworthy,” according to a recent Quinnipiac poll of the 2016 presidential candidates.
(h/t The Hill)
