The young, liberal voters who flocked to major-party candidates in 2012
are increasingly flirting with third-party contenders, giving Republican Donald Trump an added edge in Georgia.
An Atlanta Journal-Constitution poll in August found that about one-quarter of Georgia voters under the age of 39 backed either Green Party candidate Jill Stein or Libertarian Gary Johnson. And a Monmouth University poll out last week showed Donald Trump with a 3-point lead over Clinton in Georgia, partly because Johnson was pulling double-digit support from younger voters in the state.
"There has been some talk of Georgia becoming part of a demographic realignment in presidential politics," said Patrick Murray, the director of the Monmouth University Polling Institute. "However, Clinton is not quite making the needed inroads among young white voters to take the lead here."
Millennials have fled from Trump, too, but his campaign is built around a base of mostly older white voters. The leak of younger supporters is more damaging for Clinton, who is struggling to reforge the same youthful coalition that Barack Obama built in 2008 and 2012 to overwhelm her Republican opponent.
More: Clinton's campaign is trying to step up its appeal to young voters in Georgia
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