If we zero in even further on the youngest of the millennials in these polls ? those who turned 18 during Obama?s first term ? the potential challenges for Democrats become even clearer. Among self-reported voters who were 18 years old in 2012, Mitt Romney, not Obama, won the majority: 57 percent. Romney also won 59 percent among 19-year-olds, and 54 percent among 20-year-olds.
These youngest voters of 2012 had entered the electorate in 2010-2012, when Obama?s popularity was much lower than the high point of his inauguration. Only among ?the oldest of the youngest? ? 21-year-olds, whose political memories would have been forged during Obama?s first year in office and perhaps during his first presidential campaign ? did Obama win a clear majority (75 percent).
Democrats have a young people problem, too.
