Young independent Ohioans “know what it looks like when candidates fail to deliver on promises of change,” says Generation Opportunity’s Paul Conway, after finding that just 30 percent of those voters believe President Obama has helped the Ohio economy.
“Only 13 percent of Independent young adults in Ohio say that the economic policies coming out of Washington are helping them,” the new Generation Opportunity poll found. “Only 28 percent approve of President Obama’s handling of youth unemployment. Only 30 percent think that President Obama’s policies have helped create jobs in Ohio.” Generation Opportunity is a non-partisan group, although Conway worked in the Labor Department during the last Bush presidency.
“Over the next few days, young Ohioans will finalize their decision and, ultimately, make their voices heard by voting for the candidate they believe has shown leadership in outlining an agenda that will allow businesses to grow and put more young people in Ohio and across America back to work,” Conway said in a statement. “[T]hey know what it looks like when candidates fail to deliver on promises of change.”
Since his 2008 rise, Obama has turned to young voters for electoral strength, but these poll results comport with Mitt Romney’s apparent strength among independents generally. The New York Times/Quinnipiac survey, for instance, found Romney with a six-point lead among Ohio swing voters, though he paradoxically trailed by five in the topline poll results.
Seventy-two percent of young Ohio swing voters plan to vote in the presidential election, while” 71% say the availability of more quality, full-time jobs with health insurance plans is more important than the ability to stay on their parents’ health insurance plans until they are 26.” That question effectively tests the popularity of the Obamacare rule allowing that extended stay on parents plans against the value of having a job.
