51% of GenZ has very little presidency trust; DNC viewership 22% lower
4 Min Read
14% express "quite a lot" or "great deal" of faith in the office, while those surveyed have a significant degree of distrust toward the Supreme Court (44%) and Congress (53%) as well.
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Vice President Kamala Harris, left, on Aug. 7, 2024, and Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump on July 31, 2024. (AP)
Over half of Generation Z has "very little" trust in the presidency, according to recent Gallup polling data.
At the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, Harris' running mate Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz said in his speech to the youth caucus, "This thing is going to be close," adding, "It is going to be closer than it should be, it's going to be won in the trenches. It's going to be won by your demographic, for the most part, if we can turn you out and get you to vote."
51% of those aged 12 to 27 who participated in the survey stated they had very little faith in the presidency, which is an increase of 4% from 2023, while 14% expressed "quite a lot" or "great deal" of faith in the office.
Distrust of Congress and the Supreme Court is also high among those surveyed.
53% of respondents said they have "very little" trust in Congress and 44% said the same of the Supreme Court.
The Gallup survey was conducted in April and May prior to Harris declaring her candidacy.
At the beginning of her campaign, Harris had a much higher popularity than President Biden among the youngest voters in America.
Read more: Barack Obama calls Kamala Harris the 'new chapter' for US
Voters of Tomorrow, a Gen Z-led group, conducted a poll on Tuesday that shows Harris leading Trump by 32 points among 18 to 29-year-olds residing in seven battleground states.
Voting in November's election is highly likely or certain for two-thirds of VOT poll participants.
Gallup analyst Zach Hrynowski stated that Gen Z voters had less faith in most institutions than middle- and high-school-aged members of the group.
Ratings see substantial decrease from 2016
According to US media company Nielsen, there were almost 20 million watchers of the Democratic National Convention (DNC) on Monday night.
Similar to the RNC this past month, the Democratic National Convention's first night's ratings saw a modest increase from 2020 but a substantial decrease (22%) from 2016.
From 11:30 pm to 12:30 am, about 19.1 million people tuned in to watch the DNC live during the president's address.
Thirteen cable and broadcast networks, including ABC, CBS, NBC, Scripps News, Univision, CNN, CNNe, FOX Business, FOX News Channel, MSNBC, Newsmax, NewsNation, and PBS, covered the event live.
According to MSNBC's quick national figures, the network with the greatest viewership overall was MSNBC with 4.6 million, followed by CNN (3.2 million), ABC (2.8 million), Fox News (2.4 million), CBS (2.0 million), and NBC (1.8 million).
According to a representative for the network, Monday's DNC night 1 viewership was the highest ever.
More people watched the first night of the DNC than the first three RNC nights (18.13 million, 14.81 million, and 17.97 million, respectively).
25 million people watched the fourth night, which usually has the best performances of any convention.
When Trump relayed his perspective on the assassination attempt against him, viewership reached a peak of 28.4 million between 10:45 and 11 pm ET.
According to Nielsen, the majority of voters who watched the convention live on Monday were over the age of 55, just like at the RNC and every other significant live political TV event.
The DNC has made an effort to connect with more youthful voters. Committee staffers told Axios that Democrats are employing vertical video on TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube to webcast the convention this week.
More than 200 social media content makers were given exclusive access to the convention.
