Are millennials having a libertarian moment?
Just weeks ahead of the party conventions and four months before the general election, a new poll has Libertarian Party Candidate Gary Johnson leading the de facto Republican candidate Donald Trump among young voters — but just barely.
The Pew Research poll found that if the election were held today and voters had to choose between Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump and Gary Johnson, adults aged 18-29 would favor the third-party candidate over Trump 22% to 21%. By comparison, just 6% of voters 50 and older said they would support Johnson, and both men trail Hillary Clinton by wide margin in the young demographic.
One explanation for Johnson’s strong showing could that many die-hard twenty-something Bernie Sanders fans — the #NeverHillary and #NeverTrumpers who relentlessly backed the Democratic hopeful during the primaries — haven’t yet warmed to Clinton and would rather cast the ballot for a third party.
The pro-freedom, anti-surveillance Libertarian party might just be the alternative they are looking for, however. After all, many of Johnson’s positions on issues such as the war on drugs and military intervention are much closer to those of Sanders than they are to Clinton’s.
Trump’s protectionist and nativist platform also seems to appeal little to young voters — especially college-educated ones and ones from minority groups. Nor does it seem to be playing well among educated white voters, a demographic that, as Five Thirty Eight points out, the Republicans have not lost in 60 years.
