DURHAM, N.H. – Young Republican and Democratic voters don’t agree on much. But college students outside of former President Donald Trump’s rally at the University of New Hampshire Saturday found common ground on at least one thing – they’re unhappy with President Joe Biden.
“He’s got to go,” Katelyn Bellemare, a 19-year-old self-described right-leaning independent, said. Bellemare isn’t sure yet who she’ll vote for in the 2024 primary or general election, but she knows it won’t be the current president.
“He’s hasn’t done any good for this country,” the Rochester, Mass. native studying psychology at UNH, said, noting Biden’s handling of the economy and foreign policy as key deterrents.
Hours later, inside the Whittemore Center Arena, Trump attempted to capitalize on the discontent expressed by voters like Bellemare during a wide-ranging speech that mostly focused on his economic agenda.
“Were you better off five years ago or are you better off today?” the Republican frontrunner asked the crowd of thousands, including many college-age students finishing out their last few days on campus before winter break. “Not one thing has gotten better under crooked Joe Biden.”
With less than a month to go until voting starts in the GOP primary, Trump is dominating his Republican competitors in every national and state poll. And other than several brief mentions of his primary opponents, the ex-president appeared more focused in his speech on a general election match up against Biden.
Trump appeals to voters on economy
If Trump manages to win his parties nomination, young voters like those present Saturday could be crucial for him next November. Recent national polls have shown Biden losing momentum with the key voting bloc that helped propel him to the presidency in 2020.
A Harvard Institute of Politics poll published in early December found Biden only slightly ahead of Trump among voters who are 18 to 29. He held a lead of just 4% – a major drop from 2020, when Biden a similar poll showed him winning the same group by 23%.
Another survey published by NBC News survey published in November found Trump leading among voters ages 18-34 by 46% to 42%.
Young voters present at Trump’s rally Saturday cited economic concerns as a major reason they’re backing the businessman.
David Montenegro, a 22-year-old hailing from Providence, R.I., said most of his friends are planning to vote with their pocketbook in 2024.
“A lot of students are going for internships, are going for jobs. They’re not getting the jobs they want and they feel it is a result of the overall direction of the Biden administration,” said Montenegro, who is studying business at Babson College in Massachusetts. “They want the economy to recover.”
The Biden administration has largely touted it’s economic agenda as a success, highlighting a near 50-year-low unemployment rate, a growing jobs market and an annual inflation rate that, according to the Consumer Price Index, is down to 3.1% from a high of 9.1% in June 2022.
But few Americans have said they approve of Biden’s handling of the economy. Over two thirds of young voters in the Harvard poll rated the economy as “fairly bad” or “very bad.” Among young voters who said the economy was among their top concern in 2024, a majority said inflation and cost of living was main issue.
Protesters reluctantly support Biden
Even students protesting Trump’s visit to campus highlighted the economy as a top-of-mind issue in 2024.
Lizzy Mower, 20, stood across the street from the Whittemore Center Saturday with a group of students several dozen strong holding up signs and chanting objections to the president’s visit. Although they are a Democrat, the Goffstown native doesn’t love the idea of voting for Biden.
“I would hope with all of my hearts that it is someone else,” Mower, who is studying wildlife conservation at UNH, said, adding that Biden is not progressive enough for her taste.
And while they doesn’t necessarily blame Biden for the economy, Mower said housing and rent prices are weighing on them heavily this election, noting that “the cost of everything is way higher.”
They’re still deciding how to vote in New Hampshire’s first-in-the-nation primary. Like many Democratic voters USA TODAY has spoken with, Mower said they would hands-down support Biden against Trump in a general election out of fear for Democracy.
‘We’re not a democracy’
The ex-president recently mocked a question about whether he would “abuse power as retribution against anybody” if re-elected, saying he would only be a dictator on “day one.”
He later repeated the remarks at an event for the New York Young Republican Club, adding: “You know why I wanted to be a dictator? Because I want a wall, and I want to drill, drill, drill.”
The Republican presidential frontrunner has floated the idea of authoritarian rule in the U.S. before. In 2018, Trump made similar comments about Chinese President Xi Jinping’s consolidation of power during a luncheon for Republican donors.
“He’s now president for life,” Trump said of Jinping’s power at the time. “I think it’s great. Maybe we’ll give that a shot someday.”
Young voters attending Trump’s event Saturday said they don’t put too much salt into the businessman’s comments about authoritarian rule. However, many did question whether the current form of government in the U.S. is working, often repeating the president’s unsubstantiated claims about Biden.
“I would say we’re kind of a deep state and we’re not a democracy,” 19-year-old Bradley Richards told USA TODAY, adding that he believes agencies like the Department of Education, which receive oversight from Congress, take power away from voters.
He argued that the Department of Justice is being weaponized against the former president as among the key reasons leading to his distrust in the government.
Trump has been indicted four times, including in two cases involving his efforts to overturn the 2020 election. The former president is also facing charges related to improper hush money payments in New York and mishandling classified documents in Florida.
