Bernie Sanders crushed Hillary Clinton by 70 points among young voters in Iowa


The most amazing stat coming out of the Iowa Democratic caucuses is this one: Among voters between the ages of 17 and 29, Bernie Sanders won 84 percent of the vote to Hillary Clinton's 14 percent.

That's astounding, even given the fact that we knew going into the caucuses that Sanders, a 74-year-old socialist, was clearly the choice of young people in the state. How astounding? Barack Obama won the 17-29 vote by "only" 43 points in the 2008 Iowa Democratic caucuses. (Clinton finished third among young voters in Iowa in 2008; she got 11 percent of the vote.) Yes, Obama faced more ? and more serious ?opponents. But still.

If Iowa proved that Sanders is the candidate of Democratic youths, it also showed why young people aren't likely to carry him to the nomination. Why? There just aren't enough of them.

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Voters ages 17-29 comprised 18 percent of the Iowa Democratic caucus electorate. (In 2008, they were 22 percent.) That made them the smallest age group in Iowa, with 30-to-44-year-olds (19 percent), 45-to-64-year-olds (36 percent) and those 65 or older (28 percent) all representing a bigger chunk of voters.

Pay particular attention to those two older age brackets. Among 45-to-64-year-olds, Clinton beat Sanders by 23 points. Among voters 65 or older, Clinton won by 43 points. Her margins among middle-aged and older people effectively canceled out Sanders's massive win among young people.

Iowa is not terribly representative of the nation in many ways, but its median age ? right around 38.2 ? puts it right smack dab in the middle of the 50 states. That means that for Sanders to score clearer wins, he either needs to (a) win the youth vote by an even bigger margin or (b) limit Clinton's margin among older voters.

The latter option seems more feasible to me both because it's hard to win any demographic group by 70 points in a competitive race and because, well, Sanders is speaking to his own generation when it comes to voters over 65.

So yes, Sanders's numbers among young people are eye-popping. But they also show the limits to being only the youth candidate. 

Wow......

Go Bernie!!!!

(I still don't see him surviving the Clinton machine) 

(I still don't see him surviving the Clinton machine)

duh 

(I still don't see him surviving the Clinton machine)

That's what they said about Obama. 

The DNC side of things are getting interesting. 

Most of the democrats and independents I know, support Bernie. Most of the conservatives I know, support Trump.

Very few people in my circles, support Hillary or Cruz. 

I really hope trump loses the next primary and goes away.

If it's between sanders and trump, I vote sanders.

If it's Clinton v. Trump, I vote trump. He would be less damaging than her. 

For me it's: ANYONE but Cruz. 

The DNC side of things are getting interesting.?


The RNC side isnt... 

They always have been.

The DNC has always painted themselves as the rational, calm, cool, and collected group.

Not so much, eh? 

Not at all surprising - the young people won't have to work and will get everything for free - yay, socialism! Idiots. 

I think it is hilarious when I hear these students back Bernie. Don't they realize where the money comes from to pay for all the government programs? 

These young millennials haven't a clue about how things work in this world. 

Feel the Bern! 

All they hear is free college not realizing when they get a job with that degree it will cost them 15x more In taxes over their lifetime then the student debt would be