Hillary Clinton’s struggles with Millennial voters has been noted before. But now, even the New York Times is admitting it.
To be sure, Albert R. Hunt does take a positive view of Hillary. In one of his first paragraphs he points out that her “nomination is almost a foregone conclusion, barring any unlikely legal or health issues.” He also offers that “Democrats will offer a more coherent and unified front for the general election than the fractious Republicans.”
One of Hillary’s biggest issues is with young voters, which Hunt calls ” a striking problem.” This “enthusiasm gap” certainly applies to that demographic.
Several polls show young people have an unfavorable opinion of her. Hunt references last month’s poll from NBC News/WSJ, which showed a plurality of young voters holding an unfavorable view of Hillary. He also points out how she fared even worse in a Bloomberg Politics poll.
More recently, a Quinnipiac poll in Colorado revealed Hillary has a 61-28 unfavorable rating with Millennials.
To put it in perspective, Obama won 60 percent of young voters last presidential election, which provided his overall margin. Hunt also cautions that a decline in the amount of young voters from the last election could have resulted in a fewer Democratic congressional seats.
This “enthusiasm gap” does not merely apply to young people, but to Independents as well. The NBC/WSJ poll also noted that among independents, Hillary has higher negatives than any of the top 5 GOP candidates other than Donald Trump.
When it comes to Hispanic and Black voters, Hunt says “there is little doubt that Mrs. Clinton easily would defeat any Republican among blacks and Hispanics.” Still, he does doubt that they will be as motivated to turn out for Hillary as much as they did for Obama.
In closing, he also lauds Hillary as “a disciplined politician who often has been able to recover from her problems.” There is still a “but,” as Hunt warns “she rarely exhibits the kinds of innate political skills that her husband used to offset his weaknesses.” He also cautions that “right now she has problems with elements of the electorate that would seem to require her to develop a more deft political touch.”
Hunt and others are so quick to call Hillary’s nomination “a foregone conclusion.” Her election, on the other hand, may not be so certain, especially when even the New York Times is clearly nervous.
