Fox & Friends guest claimed young voters “more conservative” on abortion, “racial preferences”

Written by Jeremy Holden

Published


On the July 5 edition of Fox News' Fox & Friends, during a discussion of a June 15-23 New York Times/ CBS News/ MTV poll, co-host Brian Kilmeade did not challenge the assertion by Young America's Foundation spokesman Jason Mattera that “young people, as opposed to the general public, are more conservative on the issue of abortion and racial preferences. ... [T]hey'd rather ban abortion and they are opposed to racial preferences as well.” In fact, Mattera's claim regarding abortion is not supported by the Times/ CBS News/ MTV poll discussed during the segment, which surveyed 17-29 year-olds. As a June 27 New York Times article about the poll noted, respondents' “views on abortion mirror those of the public at large: 24 percent said it should not be permitted at all, while 38 percent said it should be made available but with greater restrictions. Thirty-seven percent said it should be generally available.”

A May 18-23 New York Times/CBS News poll of adults of all ages found that 21 percent of respondents said “abortion should not be permitted,” 37 percent said it “should be available but under stricter limits then [sic] it is now,” and 39 percent said “abortion should be generally available to those who want it.” The margin of error for the June 15-23 poll was +/-4 percentage points while the margin for the May 18-23 poll was +/-3 points, and thus there was not a statistically significant difference between the responses of young voters and adults of all ages.

While The New York Times/ CBS News/ MTV poll did not contain a question on, in Mattera's words, “racial preferences,” on March 22, the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press reported that a “majority of people ages 18-29 endorse preferences (54%), compared with no more than three-in-ten in other age groups.”

From the July 5 edition of Fox News' Fox & Friends:

KILMEADE: Young voters lean left: this according to a poll conducted by The New York Times, CBS News, and MTV. But does this poll truly give the pulse of America's youth? Representing both sides of the pulse, the budding electorate, is Jason Mattera for the Young America's Foundation and Malia Lazu with the Young Democrats of America.

[...]

MATTERA: What this trend doesn't take in effect is how young people are going to vote in the future. And we know, as they get older, they vote more conservative because they are starting to vote with their purses and they're starting to vote with their wallets. What this poll doesn't point out is that young people, as opposed to the general public, are more conservative on the issue of abortion and racial preferences.

They look to -- they'd rather ban abortion and they are opposed to racial preferences as well, which this doesn't take into account. But, yeah, I mean, it's no surprise that young people are more liberal on the issue of -- say -- of health care, because health care really doesn't affect them at a young age.