Subject: Re: Washington Post (The Fix) - Polls say Joe Biden’s age isn’t necessarily hurting him with young Democrats
From: "Francis Biden" <[email-masked]>
To: "Bill Russo" <[email-masked]>
Cc: "Finnegan James" <[email-masked]>, "JRB ware" <[email-masked]>, "Jill Biden" <[email-masked]>, "Maisy Biden" <[email-masked]>, "Naomi Biden" <[email-masked]>, "Valerie Owens" <[email-masked]>, <[email-masked]>, <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 05 Dec 2018 16:45:34 -0500

No surprise . He is wildly popular with Kids at FAU. I spoke there last
week about Opioid Crisis with States Attorney Dave Arronberg And was
approached by a host of students urging me to tell him to run.

On Wed, Dec 5, 2018 at 4:23 PM Bill Russo <[email-masked]> wrote:

> All -
>
> Per the VP’s request, sharing this piece from the Washington Post, with
> the content pasted below:
>
>
> https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2018/12/05/polls-say-joe-bidens-age-isnt-necessarily-hurting-him-with-young-democrats/
>
> Regards,
> Bill
>
> —
>
> Democratic voters have split along generational lines in the past two
> presidential primary cycles. And the very early front-runner for 2020,
> former vice president Joe Biden has been criticized for being, well, old.
>
> In the limited polling we have, Biden, 76, leads the pack of potential
> 2020 Democratic nominees, a substantial portion of whom are older than 65.
> On Monday, the Wall Street Journal released a survey
> <https://www.wsj.com/articles/iowa-democrats-say-they-want-generational-change-1543833001> of
> Iowa Democratic Party chairs that found many were hesitant to support an
> older candidate in 2020. The biggest worry among that group was that older
> candidates would not garner enthusiasm from younger voters.
>
> “I can’t see how my generation, 18- to 34-year-olds, can get excited about
> a 70-year-old candidate ever again,” Bryce Smith, 26, the Dallas County
> chairman, told the Journal.
>
> Beyond party officials, does early polling show that Biden has a problem
> with younger Democratic voters?
>
> In 2008 primaries and caucuses where exit polls were conducted, Democratic
> voters younger than 30 supported eventual nominee Barack Obama by a
> 20-point margin (58 percent to 38 percent), while voters 65 and older
> favored Hillary Clinton by a similarly wide 24 points (58 percent to 34
> percent). The generation gap grew to a chasm in 2016, with Sen. Bernie
> Sanders (Vt.) winning Democrats younger than 30 by a whopping 43-point
> margin, while Clinton won seniors by 42 points. Younger voters did not get
> their way that year.
>
> Early 2020 polls cast doubt on the idea that Biden is destined to fare
> poorly among younger Democrats. A Washington Post-Schar School poll
> <https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2018/politics/midterm-battleground-districts/> of
> battleground congressional-district voters in the 2018 midterms found that
> younger and older Democrats were about equally supportive of Biden as the
> party’s 2020 nominee. Among voters who supported Democratic House
> candidates, 35 percent of those ages 18 to 34 said they would like Biden to
> win the party’s 2020 presidential nomination, identical to his 35 percent
> support among Democrats age 65 and older.
>
> As in 2016, Sanders in this poll received far more support from younger
> Democrats than seniors (31 percent vs. 5 percent), although he did not
> quite match Biden’s level of support, even among the youngest cohort of
> voters. Sanders’s strength with younger adults appears to have come more at
> the expense of potential candidates Michael R. Bloomberg and Sen. Cory
> Booker (D-N.J.) than from Biden.
>
> An earlier CNN poll
> <https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/5002040-2020.html> in October
> found Biden weaker among younger Democratic and leaning-Democratic
> independents when asked whom they support for the 2020 nomination. Biden
> garnered 33 percent support among Democratic-leaning adults overall, but
> his support was 13 points higher among those ages 45 and older (39 percent)
> than among Democrats younger than 45. Nonetheless, that age gap is smaller
> than it was for Clinton in 2016, and Biden’s level of support among voters
> under 45 is at least slightly higher than Sanders at 21 percent, Sen.
> Kamala D. Harris (Calif.) at 13 percent, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (Mass.) at
> 11 percent and others in the single digits.
>
> A separate CNN poll in
> <https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/4426174-2020.html>March found
> large majorities of younger and older Democrats at least open to supporting
> Biden for the party’s nomination in 2020. Among Democratic-leaning adults,
> 81 percent of those younger than 45 said they would be very or somewhat
> likely to support Biden if he runs for the Democratic nomination, similar
> to 86 percent of those 45 and older. Both figures were similar to or higher
> than those for other potential candidates tested, including Sanders.
>
> None of the polls above guarantee that Biden will fare well among younger
> Democrats in caucuses and primaries, which are
> <https://www.wsj.com/articles/iowa-democrats-say-they-want-generational-change-1543833001> more
> than one year away. The past two cycles suggest younger and older Democrats
> are attracted to different types of candidates, making it one of the key
> factors to watch in 2020, along with racial and ideological divisions
> within the party.
>
> Biden’s potential candidacy could also falter if he doesn’t generate
> excitement among Democratic Party officials and activists such as those
> highlighted by the Wall Street Journal, which could sap his campaign of
> donations and volunteers. But the consistency of support for Biden across
> age groups shows that the extremely early front-runner has appeal across
> generations.
> --
>
> ---
> Bill Russo
> Spokesperson
> Office of Vice President Joe Biden