Young people and their votes

In 2016 and 2020, the voters under the age of 29 voted for the Democratic nominee for President by 24 percentage points or more. However, a recent poll indicated that currently this cohort of voters splits evenly at 47% for President Biden and 46% for Donald Trump. While Republicans are pleased to see poll results such as this one, the question of, "What happened is raised loudly."

Recently a number of polls have been conducted to try and ascertain the chief concerns of this cohort of voters. While the results of various polls differ from one another, they show similar trends. For example, the New York Times/Sienna Poll showed that 62% of voters under the age of 29 say that economic issues will be the most important factor in determining their vote. Since there has been a substantial amount of food inflation in the past two years, and since it is difficult to find a job with good pay and adequate benefits, there is little wonder this group of voters consider the economy a matter of Paramount importance.

This group also expresses less than full confidence that it will be able to achieve other economic milestones such as owning a home, having children, being able to retire, or having sufficient funds on hand to meet an emergency.

It is sad that the young people of this country are so pessimistic. I would suggest that both political parties need to give this group more attention.

JOHN PIEPHO, Cape Girardeau