Obama Slips With Young Voters, White Voters

Maybe its time Obama started a "Whites for Obama" campaign as well.

In February, President Obama initiated the African Americans for Obama effort for his Obama 2012 campaign. As part of Black History Month, he called on the black community to advocate for him in churches and schools. However, it seems like he should have been directing more attention to the white community because a recent poll shows a decline in interest by young white voters and white voters overall.

In 2008, Obama won white voters ages 18-29 by 10 percentage points over John McCain. Now, he leads Mitt Romney by only 2 points. The survey, which was conducted by the Public Religion Research Institute and the Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs at Georgetown University, used more than 2,000 millennials.

The main factors for these results?

More than three-quarters cited jobs and unemployment as the main issues, followed by education. Social issues like abortion and same-sex marriage weren’t as critical. Daniel Cox, Research Director at PRR, says, “College-age Millennials are also notable for their support for economic reforms that address the gap between the rich and the poor.”

[ALSO READ: Young Minority Voters And Obama]

More broadly, only 34 percent of young people as a whole said they were satisfied with the Obama administration. Almost half said they would like to see Obama win this year while 41 percent would still support a Republican candidate. But this could be the result of lack of voter activism in this election. Only 61 percent of “college-age Millennials are currently registered to vote, and only 46 percent say they are absolutely certain they will vote in November,” the Public Religion Research Institute said in a statement.