It’s been safe to say that young voters aren’t too excited about a possible President Hillary Clinton, but just how poorly is she faring with millennials? A new Quinnipac University poll of Colorado voters found that the younger demographic would vote for any candidate other than Hillary.
The 18- to 34-year-old age group would choose Ben Carson, Donald Trump, Marco Rubio or Ted Cruz over Hillary Clinton.
But that’s not to say that young voters in Colorado are leaning more towards a Republican candidate — the poll showed they would choose Bernie Sanders over any of the top four Republican candidates.
According to the Quinnipac poll’s assistant director Tim Malloy, one of the reasons young voters are turning away from Clinton is because she scores low on trustworthiness and honesty, which are two issues that seem to resonate with young people.
“Her leadership numbers are very high,” Malloy pointed out, “but trust and honesty are not.”
Malloy noted that Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump have similarly high leadership ability scores and low trustworthiness scores.
Only 28 percent of young voters polled had a favorable view of Clinton, while 61 percent had an unfavorable view of her, and 72 percent said she was untrustworthy.
In contrast, 54 percent of young voters had a favorable view of Bernie Sanders, and 59 percent said he was trustworthy.
When it comes to general favorability, more millennials said they disliked Donald Trump, Ted Cruz, and Hillary Clinton; while more millennials favored Ben Carson, Marco Rubio and Bernie Sanders.
Although this poll was conducted exclusively among Colorado voters, Malloy said the results should serve as a “wake-up call” for Clinton that her numbers may be dropping.
He added that measuring opinion in Colorado is a fairly accurate representation of young voters — noting the demographics of the state. Nearly half of the households in Colorado use cell phones only, significantly above the national average, which is one indicator pollsters use to determine the average age of residents.
