Democrats’ youth vote for 2014 looks like… 2010’s.

Yes, that would make Democrats frantic.  Why do you ask?

Just the one poll, of course – and note that it was done by a Democratic pollster, so don’t assume that ‘scaring the heebie-jeebies out of the Left’ isn’t part of the business model – but it does seem to fit.  It does not really surprise me that the Democrats can only count on 37% of its 2012 youth vote in 2014; as Aaron Blake noted, the youth vote dropped precipitously in 2010, too.  Midterm elections are dominated by voting blocs that make the effort to vote; the young are typically not one of those voting blocs.

And then there’s this:

Democrats are facing an enthusiasm gap with young Americans, according to a new survey of millennials, a result that echoes surveys of the wider national population.

The poll, conducted by the Harvard Institute of Politics, shows 44 percent of 2012 Mitt Romney voters aged 18-29 saying they’ll definitely vote this fall, and 35 percent of 2012 Barack Obama voters saying the same.

This will not mean that Republicans will win the youth vote in 2014: undoubtedly more young voters will turn out for Obama. But what the Democrats need to do is to recreate not the 2012 electorate, but the 2008 one – particularly in the Senate, given the number of Romney state seats held by Democrats.  And these numbers are not consistent with that kind of performance.  Lastly: given that it’s now mid-May – my, how time flies! – when were the Democrats planning to actually start building up young voter enthusiasm?

Sorry, rhetorical question.  What do young voters have to be enthusiastic about, these days?

Moe Lane (crosspost)