The vast majority of Princeton students plan on voting or have already voted for Kamala Harris in the 2024 Presidential Election, according to a poll conducted by The Daily Princetonian. 73.5 percent of respondents indicated they are casting a vote for Harris, compared to 15.9 percent for Donald Trump. Among college students nationwide in the Harvard Institute of Politics (IOP) Youth Poll, 64 percent indicated they would vote for Harris and 30 percent for Trump.
The ‘Prince’ sent a poll to 10 percent of undergraduate students between Oct. 23 and 26 and received 113 responses, or a 19.7 percent response rate. Only students over the age of 18 and United States citizens were asked in the email to respond to the poll. The full results of the poll can be found here. Poll questions were adapted with permission from the Harvard IOP poll so Princeton results can be compared with national youth and college student data.
42.2 percent of Harris supporters are “Strong Democrats” compared to only 22.2 percent of Trump supporters who are “Strong Republicans.” The Harvard IOP found 51 percent of Democrats and 52 percent of Republicans to be strongly aligned with their respective affiliated party. The IOP poll also found three percent of “Strong” or “Not very strong” supporters of each party planning on voting for the other party’s candidate — a trend not seen in the ‘Prince’ poll, where only “lean” affiliated respondents are supporting the other party’s candidate.
Over 88 percent of the student body is unsure or pessimistic about the future of the nation with 57 percent of respondents saying that the nation is on the wrong track and 31.5 percent saying that they are unsure as to the future of the nation. The Harvard IOP poll found that 21 percent of Democrats and four percent of Republicans believed the country is headed on the right track. In the ‘Prince’ poll, a significantly lower percentage of Democrats believed that the country is headed in the right direction with six percent while none of Republican respondents believed the country was headed in the right direction.
A higher percentage of respondents said that they are more trusting of Kamala Harris on all key issues compared to results of the Harvard IOP poll. In both, “National security and defense” have the lowest margins indicating closer to equal numbers of people putting trust in Trump and in Harris to handle this issue. In the Harvard IOP poll, immigration is important among more Trump voters despite a 29 percent margin in favor of Harris in the ‘Prince’ poll. Respondents to the Harvard IOP poll trusted Trump more than Harris on the following issues: immigration, the economy, national security and defense, and the Israel-Hamas War.
Similar to the Harvard IOP poll, Project 2025 has very low favorability, with 72.6 percent of Princeton students viewing it as “Very unfavorable.” Among college students in the Harvard IOP poll, 50 percent viewed it as such.
Climate change is the issue that the highest percentage of Harris voters say is most important with 80.7 percent of Harris voters selecting this among their most valued issues. National security and defense is only ranked as an issue of importance among 18.1 percent of Harris voters, the lowest of any issue, compared to 38.9 percent of Trump voters. The economy is the issue selected by the highest percentage of Trump voters, 94.4 percent, as one of their most valued issues.
In the Harvard IOP poll, 46 and 48 percent Democrat and Republican voters, respectively, are very enthusiastic about their vote, higher than enthusiasm for candidates in the ‘Prince’ poll. Harris voters are more enthusiastic about their candidate than Trump voters — 69.9 percent compared to 55.6 percent, aligning with the Harvard IOP’s 87 percent of Democrats enthusiastic about their vote compared to 79 percent of Republicans.
In the ‘Prince’ poll, there were three states in which ten or more respondents are registered to vote: New Jersey, New York, and California. A majority in each of these states reported that if the election was today between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump, they would cast their vote for Harris. Twenty-one respondents are registered to vote in New Jersey and 18 will vote for Harris.
For each party affiliation, over 30 percent of party affiliates said that neither candidate is honest and 53.2 percent of Independent/Unaffiliated respondents say that neither candidate is honest. Every respondent strongly affiliated with the Republican Party said that Donald Trump is the more patriotic candidate and almost 60 percent of Independent/Unaffiliated respondents said the same. Nearly all party affiliates believe their candidate is the most competent.
Since their first event on Sept. 17, Vote100 and other campus organizations have been helping students register to vote and receive their absentee ballots. Vote100 is also organizing Lyft rides to polls on November 5 and group walks to the nearby polling places.
Andrew Bosworth is a head Data editor and staff Sports writer for the ‘Prince.’
Vincent Etherton is a staff Data writer for the ‘Prince.’
Alexa Wingate is an assistant Data editor for the ‘Prince.’
Please send any corrections to corrections[at]dailyprincetonian.com.
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