Chegg And College Pulse Launch Interactive College Student Political Polling Tool For The 2020 Presidential Election
Students expected to play a significant role in the Democratic primary and general election
SANTA CLARA, Calif., July 10, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Chegg (NYSE: CHGG), the leading student-first connected learning platform, has announced the launch of Chegg/College Pulse Student Election tracker, an interactive political poll surveying over 1,500 US students, reporting their views on candidates and leading issues in the 2020 election. The weekly tracker is powered by College Pulse, an online survey and analytics company dedicated to understanding today's college students, and coincided with the first round of Democratic presidential debates.
The youth and student vote is expected to be critical to the 2020 election cycle. Issues such as student debt and the cost of college have already been shown to be important electoral issues in the 2020 Democratic primary, and according to the Census Bureau voter turn out for 18 to 29 year olds jumped a dramatic 79% between the 2014 and 2018 elections, the largest increase of any age group.1
Chegg's own data shows that 80% of College Students intend to vote in this election.
Following the first two debates, results from students polled on July 2nd found that Senator Elizabeth Warren challenged Senator Bernie Sanders for the Democratic student vote, while other candidates struggled to attract support. Highlights from the first set of polling results included:
- Senator Elizabeth Warren's support surged, rising to second place with support from 21% of college students, trailing only Senator Bernie Sanders with 28%.
- Joe Biden's support plummeted among Democratic college students with only 12% of Democratic students supporting his candidacy, down from 17% before the debate.
- Senator Kamala Harris led a strong debate and although only supported among 7% of Democratic college students, 26% of students who watched the debate said Harris exceeded their expectations.
This week's latest polling, conducted yesterday (July 9) and released today, show no dramatic movements, but continued support for Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, who maintain their leads respectively, and a further 2% decrease in college students' support for Biden. The polling results found:
- Bernie Sanders continues to lead nationally among Democratic college students, with Elizabeth Warren still in second place, followed by Joe Biden.
- Joe Biden saw his support plummet among Democratic college students following the first debate, and there has been a further 2% decrease in support with 10% of Democratic students now supporting his candidacy, down from 12% last week and 17% two weeks ago before the debate.
- Since the first Democratic debate Kamala Harris's support has surged. Her support among Democratic college students is 8%, up from 3% before the debate.
"College students formed a major voting bloc in the 2018 mid-terms, that far exceeded previous turnout. Students are expected to play a significant role again in both the Democratic primaries and national election in the 2020 election," says Dan Rosensweig, CEO & President of Chegg. "At Chegg, we strongly believe that not only will students' votes matter in this election, but their views on the issues that are most important to them - particularly around student debt - deserve to be heard by today's political leaders and the leaders of tomorrow."
"College Pulse's unique approach allows us to meet students where they are, engaging them on a digital survey and analytics platform that allows them to answer questions freely and honestly," said College Pulse CEO Terren Klein. "With our weekly election tracker, we can help our nation's political, academic, and business leaders gain access to reliable, real-time insights into the shifting attitudes of today's young people."
The second scheduled debate round on July 30 and 31 in Detroit - where 14 candidates have secured a spot on the debate stage through donor support and polling - will provide further analysis on the views of college students.
Complementing polling data from the second debate round, Chegg and College Pulse will publish regular commentary and analysis on how the race for the Democratic nomination is being viewed by students. The first article in this series of commentary can be read here.
Weekly updates to the student election tracker can be viewed on Chegg's dedicated webpage, in addition to a weekly newsletter that can be subscribed to.
Notes to editors:
About Chegg/College Pulse Election Tracker
On a weekly basis, College Pulse surveys over 1,500 full-time and part-time students attending two and four-year colleges or universities across the United States who are part of College Pulse's American College Student Panel. Every data point uses a weighted rolling average of the surveys from the previous three weeks' surveys.
About Chegg
Chegg puts students first. As the leading student-first connected learning platform, Chegg strives to improve the overall return on investment in education by helping students learn more in less time and at a lower cost. Chegg is a publicly-held company based in Santa Clara, California and trades on the NYSE under the symbol CHGG. For more information, visit www.chegg.com.
About College Pulse
College Pulse is an online survey and analytics company dedicated to understanding the attitudes, preferences, and behaviors of today's college students. College Pulse offers custom data-driven marketing and research solutions, utilizing its unique American College Student Panel that includes 250,000 college student respondents from more than 800 four-year colleges and universities in all 50 states. For more information, visit https://collegepulse.com.
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