Feelings About the 2024 Presidential Election<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nDespite an even split between the Democratic and Republican Parties, when it comes to the 2024 Presidential Election, poll respondents show a preference for Joe Biden over Donald Trump. When asked to choose between Trump, Biden, a number of third party candidates, and an \u201cI don\u2019t know\u201d option, 33.3% of respondents chose Biden to only 26.4% who chose Trump. No Democrats or Republicans voted for the opposing party\u2019s candidate, but Democrats were far more likely to vote for their party\u2019s candidate over the \u201cI don\u2019t know\u201d option, with 84.6% doing so, than were Republicans, only 68.2% of whom did. Biden also led Trump among voters unidentified with either party, although only by 3.6%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Although he leads Trump by 6.9%, Biden\u2019s lead is far from conclusive, seeing as a plurality (37.5%) of respondents selected \u201cI don\u2019t know\u201d when asked to pick a candidate. That number is one of the highest rates of \u201cI don\u2019t know\u201d responses to any question on the survey, behind only two questions about economic policy. Despite general indecision about their vote, respondents seem to display some investment in the election, as 81.9% of respondents said that if they could vote for president in 2024, they would.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Overall lack of enthusiasm for the candidates may be one reason students don\u2019t know who to pick. To a question asking respondents to rate on a scale from 1 to 5 how much they agreed with the statements \u201cI want Joe Biden to win the 2024 Presidential Election\u201d and \u201cI want Donald Trump to win the 2024 Presidential Election,\u201d mean responses were 2.54 and 2.43 respectively, both around a half a point below an even or neutral rating. In other words, on average students didn\u2019t want Trump or Biden to win the election more often and\/or more strongly than they wanted one of them to. Although these averages are similarly low for both candidates, a closer look at the data shows very different reasons for this for each candidate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Trump\u2019s low average score can be accounted for by a significant number of respondents strongly opposing him. In response to the statement that they wanted him to win the election, a striking plurality (43.1%) of respondents chose 1 (strongly disagree), which is 11.2% more than the number of respondents who chose this negative view in response to the same statement about Biden. Trump is also not respondents\u2019 top choice for a Republican president. 70.8% of respondents would prefer Nikki Haley as president over Trump, including 50% of Republicans and 75% of respondents unaffiliated with either of the two major political parties. Nevertheless, a small but significant group of AJA students are enthusiastic about Trump, with 15.3% of respondents choosing 5 (strongly agree) in response to the statement that they want Trump to win the election, which is more than twice as many than chose that rating in response to the same question about Biden.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Low enthusiasm even from his supporters is a big reason for Biden\u2019s low rating. Although 33.3% of respondents said they would vote for Biden against Trump, only 23.6% of them said they agreed or strongly agreed that they wanted him to win the election. Many respondents also strongly oppose Biden, although fewer than oppose Trump. Tied as the most common responses to the statement about wanting Biden to win are 1 (strongly disagree) and 3 (neutral). One significant reason for this opposition and lack of enthusiasm may be Biden\u2019s age. 70.9% of respondents agreed or strongly agreed that \u201cJoe Biden is too old to be president\u201d compared to only 40.3% who thought the same about Trump.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Where AJA Falls on Key Issues<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nDespite these differences regarding political party affiliation and presidential candidate preferences, some issues appear to unite AJA students. For example, respondents strongly supported the right to abortion, with 45.8% of respondents strongly agreeing and 31.9% agreeing that \u201cWomen should have the right to get an abortion,\u201d compared to only 5.6% who disagreed and 5.6% who strongly disagreed. Female respondents generally felt stronger in favor of the right to an abortion, with 63.3% of them strongly agreeing compared to only 33.3% of male respondents who did the same.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Students also seem to agree in their opposition to affirmative action, with 31.9% of respondents strongly disagreeing and 33.3% disagreeing with the idea that \u201cFor the sake of diversity, colleges and universities should consider an applicant\u2019s race as part of their admissions process.\u201d Interestingly, although 11.1% of respondents dissented from this consensus by agreeing that race should be considered in admission, no one strongly agreed with the idea, making it the only issue that no students strongly supported. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Respondents also generally agreed about the place of homosexuality in society, with 83.3% of them preferring the statement \u201cHomosexuality should be accepted by society\u201d over \u201cHomosexuality should be discouraged by society.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For other issues, respondents trend left or right, but agreement is less universal. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Results varied but skewed right-wing on issues of gender and racial equality. Asked to pick between the view that \u201cThe obstacles that once made it harder for women than men to get ahead are now largely gone\u201d and the view that those obstacles persist, 50% of respondents identified with the belief that those obstacles are gone, to only 34.7% who think they persist. Asked to pick between the belief that \u201cOur country has made the changes needed to give black people equal rights with white people\u201d and the belief that more changes need to be made to give black people equal rights, 41.7% of students believe sufficient progress has been made and only 33.3% that more changes need to be made.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On economic issues and the fairness of the 2020 election results, responses varied but skewed left-wing. On the election, 50% agreed or strongly agreed that the results were fair, to only 9.8% disagreeing or strongly disagreeing, with many respondents neither agreeing nor disagreeing or answering that they don\u2019t know enough to answer the question. On the economy, respondents identified more with the statement that \u201dThe government should do more to help needy Americans, even if it means going deeper into debt\u201d than with the statement that \u201cThe government today can\u2019t afford to do much more to help the needy,\u201d by 9.7%, and they agreed that the American economic system unfairly favors powerful interests by 19.4%. As notable on these questions as the liberal lean of those who chose a position is the number of respondents who opted out of the questions, with 54.2% and 44.4% of respondents respectively choosing \u201cI don\u2019t know enough to answer this question.\u201d AJA students seem least confident in their political knowledge of the economy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
How Do AJA Students of Today Compare to AJA Students of Three Years Ago<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nFive questions asked on this year\u2019s survey were the same as questions asked of students three years ago by a previous Palette Politics Survey. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
On all these questions, this year\u2019s respondents were far more likely to respond, \u201cI don\u2019t know enough to answer this question,\u201d but this may be accounted for by quirks of survey administration and not by an actual decline in political knowledge. The survey from three years ago reached fewer students (39 compared to this year\u2019s 72), and the students it did reach were those who opted in to a political survey, making them more likely to know enough to answer questions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Nevertheless, other differences may be more valuable indications of political shift. Namely, comparison of the surveys seems to indicate that AJA high schoolers of today are more conservative on many socioeconomic issues than they were three years ago. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
In terms of economic policy, respondents from three years ago were very left-wing, preferring to do more to help the needy, even if it meant going into deeper debt, over not doing more to help the needy, by more than 2 to 1, and agreeing that the American economic system unfairly favors powerful interests by a ratio of nearly 3 to 1. Those ratios of support are down, in this year’s survey, to 3 to 2 and 2 to1 respectively.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On social issues, the right-wing shift has been enough to change the majority opinion from what it was three years ago. Three years ago, 3 out of every 4 respondents who knew enough to answer the question felt that our country needs to continue making changes to ensure equality for black people. This year, a majority of those who knew enough to answer the question believe the opposite. Similarly, three years ago, more than 2 out of every 3 respondents who knew enough to answer the question felt that significant obstacles still make it harder for women to get ahead than men. This year, a majority of respondents believe that those obstacles are gone.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Where AJA Stands on the 2024 Election and Key Issues <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":115,"featured_media":2497,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_FSMCFIC_featured_image_caption":"","_FSMCFIC_featured_image_nocaption":"","_FSMCFIC_featured_image_hide":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2496","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features","entry","rows"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/palette.atljewishacademy.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/chart-1.png?fit=410%2C256&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/palette.atljewishacademy.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2496","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/palette.atljewishacademy.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/palette.atljewishacademy.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/palette.atljewishacademy.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/115"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/palette.atljewishacademy.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2496"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/palette.atljewishacademy.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2496\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2498,"href":"https:\/\/palette.atljewishacademy.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2496\/revisions\/2498"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/palette.atljewishacademy.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2497"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/palette.atljewishacademy.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2496"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/palette.atljewishacademy.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2496"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/palette.atljewishacademy.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2496"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}