Younger Voters Against Vaccine Mandates Could be Big Problem For Democrats

A survey that showed a recovery in approval for President Joe Biden, suggests younger people may be less convinced by COVID requirements he is promoting than older voters.

The headline figure from the NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist Poll released Thursday was the slight jump of his approval rating by two percentage points, from 43 percent to 45 percent over the last month.

Those who disapproved of the job he was doing went from a majority 51 percent a month ago, down to 46 percent.

The poll of 1,220 adults between September 20 through September 26, 2021, with a 3.7 percent margin of error pointed to confidence in Biden being on the mend, following the hit he took after the chaotic U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan a month ago.

However, Biden may still have work to do to convince the younger demographic of the broad federal vaccine requirements which he unveiled last month, according to the poll.

In September, Biden issued two executive orders requiring vaccination against COVID for federal workers and contractors who work for the federal government.

He also asked the Department of Labor to issue an emergency order requiring businesses with more than 100 workers to ensure their workers are vaccinated or tested weekly. The measures face a suite of legal challenges by some Republican governors.

The latest survey showed that Americans are split over whether firms should make their staff get the vaccine to return to work in person. Less than half (48 percent) agreed that they should, compared with 46 percent, who said they shouldn't.

However, while two-thirds (68 percent) of those aged over 75 agreed with it being mandatory for workers to be vaccinated, only 43 percent of Generation Z and millennial respondents, aged between 18 and 40, approved. Nearly half (49 percent) of these younger voters disapproved.

Meanwhile, only 43 percent of under-45s approved of mandatory COVID vaccination for workers while a majority (51 percent) disapproved of it.

Among those in Generation X—those who are aged between 41 to 56, the figure was even lower, with 39 percent approving, and a clear majority (57 percent) disapproving.

Among those 45 or older, over half (53 percent) believed employers should require the vaccine while 41 percent said they should not.

Although Biden's vaccination mandate applies to private firms with more than 100 staff, the order has spurred one in four companies to put such a policy in place, Bloomberg reported.

It also hints at resistance to further COVID mandates from the Biden administration among younger voters.

Biden was helped to victory in 2020 thanks to an increased turnout from Americans ages between 18 and 29, according to analysis from Tufts University, cited by CNBC.

When it came to Biden's federal mandate on companies, the approval among Generation Z voters (58 percent) was broadly in line with that of the general population (56 percent).

Meanwhile, nearly two-thirds of the younger demographic (65 percent) approved of mandated vaccinations for healthcare workers, slightly above the overall approval rate among respondents from all age groups over 18, of 64 percent.

On Wednesday, Biden received a third dose of the Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine as a "booster" shot at the White House as he told reporters for people to "do the right thing," and "please get the shot. It can save your life and the lives of those around you."