With college-loan pledge, president courts youth vote

Says he will fight to avert doubling of interest rates

President Obama greeted the crowd on his arrival Tuesday at Raleigh-Durham International Airport in North Carolina. (Jim R. Bounds/Associated Press)

By Amy Gardner

Washington Post / April 25, 2012

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President Obama reached out to crucial young voters here and in Chapel Hill, N.C., on Tuesday with a promise to keep college affordable, in the first two of three campus appearances in battleground states this week spotlighting this key voting group.

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Obama still tops among young voters

President Obama has expanded his lead over Mitt Romney among young voters, according to a national poll released Tuesday, but the president’s numbers remain far below the overwhelming support he received in 2008.

A Harvard University Institute of Politics survey of 18- to 29-year-old likely voters showed Obama leading the presumptive Republican nominee 43 percent to 26 percent.

The gap, 17 points, is six points wider than it was in November.

“Over the last several months, we have seen more of the millennial vote begin to solidify around President Obama and Democrats in Congress,’’ said Trey Grayson, the institute’s director. “At the same time, there has been effectively no change in their support for Mitt Romney and Republicans in Congress.’’

Four years ago, however, exit polling by The New York Times showed 66 percent of 18- to 29-year-olds backed Obama.

And there is a difference, in the Harvard poll, between Obama’s support levels in the younger and older segments of the 18- to 29-year-old bloc.

Likely voters in the 25- to 29-year-old range favor the president by 23 points, but Obama’s advantage with voters 24 and younger is only 12 points.