Survey Finds Overwhelming Support for Trump Among YU Students; Israel Cited as Top Issue
The YU Commentator conducted its perennial presidential election survey of the YU student body from Oct. 9-16. Of the respondents, 87% of students told The Commentator that they intended to vote for Republican candidate former President Donald Trump. 13% said they intend to vote for Democratic candidate Vice President Kamala Harris.
The issue students selected as most important to them, regardless of political affiliation, was Israel and foreign policy. 74% of respondents reported it as their number one issue and 96% as a top three issue. 94% of respondents told The Commentator that they trust Trump more to handle the United States-Israel relationship.
Background:
The survey polled 310 students, representing 14.5% of the YU undergraduate student body in the United States.
103 of the respondents (34%) were Yeshiva College (YC) students, 122 (40%) were Stern College for Women (SCW) students, 58 (18%) were Wilf Campus Sy Syms School of Business (SSSB) students and 23 (8%) were Beren Campus SSSB. Overall, 161 (51%) respondents were men while 145 (49%) were women.
While the percentage of YC and Stern students were overrepresented, by 4% and 10% respectively, the percentage of both Beren and Wilf SSSB students were underrepresented by 4% and 10% respectively. Overall, the percentage of males and females were accurately represented within one percentage point.
Of the Wilf Campus respondents, 64.5% indicated that they were Mazer Yeshiva Program (MYP) students, 16% were Beit Midrash Program (BMP) students, 10% were Isaac Breuer College (IBC) students and 9.5% were James Strier School (JSS) students. Notably, BMP and IBC were underrepresented, BMP by 17%. MYP was overrepresented by 17.5%.
76% of respondents indicated that they are extremely or somewhat likely to vote in the coming election.
Political Affiliation:
79% of students responded that they identify as Republican or are independents leaning toward the Republican party, while 21% of students identify as Democrats or lean toward the Democratic party. This is a sharp increase from 2020 where 47% of students identified as Republicans and 15% identified as Democrats. Importantly, this survey did not provide the option of identifying as full-independent and the 2020 survey did not provide the option of “lean” Republican or Democratic.
Following a trend from both the 2018 and 2020 elections surveys, SSSB is the most Republican-leaning undergraduate program in the university with 93% identifying as Republican or Republican leaning. In the other two schools surveyed, 70% of YC students and 77% of SCW students identified as either Republican or Republican leaning. This is in stark contrast from past data in 2020 which demonstrated that SCW students trend more liberal than their YC counterparts, as well as general U.S. population data which shows females trending more liberal in recent years than males.
The Issues:
Respondents were asked to organize seven issues in order of importance to them: Government/Leadership, Economy in General, Abortion, Judiciary and Courts, Immigration, Protecting Democracy, Israel/Foreign Policy.
The top issue students listed regardless of political affiliation was Israel/Foreign Policy. 74% of respondents reported it as their number one issue and 96% as a top three issue. This, accompanied by the result that 94% of students trust Trump more than Harris to handle the U.S.-Israel relationship, may have led to the lopsided results in voting intention.
83% of students reported that they view the Biden administration as “not supportive enough” of Israel, while 16% said Biden’s support was “just right” and only 2% said Biden has been “too” supportive of Israel.
While only 7.5% of students listed “Economy in General” as their top issue, 66% of students ranked it as top three. When asked which candidate students trusted most on the economy, 87% reported Trump, with 22% of Harris voters agreeing.
Following national trends, Harris supporters were more likely to list protecting democracy as a top issue, with 41% ranking it as their number one issue and 68% ranking it among their top three issues. Among all students, the numbers fell to 13% and 40% respectively.
When asked if they agree with Trump that the result of the 2020 election was determined by fraud, only 33% of Trump supporters “strongly disagreed,” with the number rising to 67% with the inclusion of students who “somewhat disagreed” with Trump. Only 33% of students supporting Trump “agreed” or “strongly agreed” with the former president’s contention.
While only 1% of respondents listed abortion as their top concern and just 15% as a top three concern, 51% of the student body reported that they oppose the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, including 43% of Trump supporters. Divided by gender, 64% of women and 41% of men said that they oppose the court’s decision.
Only 1% of students listed immigration as their top issue and 42% as a top three issue. For judiciary and courts, 1% of students listed it as their top issue and only 8.5% as top three.
The Election:
This survey shows Trump having the highest support for a Republican presidential candidate since The Commentator began surveying students in 1935. Trump is also the fourth most popular presidential candidate in any survey, after Adlai Stevenson, Lyndon Johnson and Hubert Humphry respectively. The sharp rise in support for Trump however, may be related to a change in the survey’s methodology, no longer allowing students to respond that they were undecided on which candidate to support.
The results follow a decades-long trend of YU students becoming more right-wing, a trend that can be seen within the survey itself. Only 77% of students reported that they supported Trump in the 2020 election.
82% of students reported that if the election were held today between Trump and Biden they would vote for Trump. This matches the survey results in which 18% of students said Joe Biden’s support for Israel since Oct. 7 was either too much (2%) or just right (16%). In contrast, only 6% of students reported that they trust Harris more on Israel than Trump.
Female students were just as likely to support Trump as male students. 100% of SSSB students on Beren campus support Trump, with 95% of their SSSB counterparts on Wilf also favoring Trump. 84% of SCW respondents indicated they would vote for Trump and only 82% of YC students said the same. Given that SSSB were underrepresented among respondents, it is possible The Commentator’s figures understate the former president’s actual support.
The biggest divide in support for the presidential candidate occurred with religious affiliation. 94.5% of self-identified ultra-Orthodox or right-wing modern Orthodox students support Trump, although only 65.5% of identified left-wing modern Orthodox or non-Orthodox students said the same.
Students with humanities majors were least likely to support Trump at 69%, followed by STEM and social science majors at 86.5% and 90% support respectively.
66% of respondents reported they intend to vote for the Republican party candidates for both U.S. Senate and House. 15% reported they would vote for only Democratic party candidates down-ballot and 19% said they would split, voting for candidates from both parties for the two offices.
Harris supporters are more likely to follow politics closely. 78% of Harris supporters say they follow politics a lot or a moderate amount compared to only 63% of Trump supporters.
The results were a statistical tie between Trump and Harris when students were asked, irrespective of support, who they believed would win the election.
Methodology:
In contrast to previous years, options to survey questions were limited to remove neutral responses. Students were not given the option to state that they were undecided or had no opinion on an issue or candidate, and students were not tallied in the results for any of the questions they skipped.
The survey was disseminated via email to the student body at two different occasions and no other medium was used to spread the survey, in order to avoid biasing the sample. Respondents had their answers kept fully anonymous and were given the option to submit their names on a separate document to be entered into a raffle for a $50 gift card, which will be held in November.
Rikki Zagelbaum and Sruli Friedman contributed to this report.
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Photo Caption: YU students overwhelmingly support the second reelection bid of former President Trump
Photo Credit: Dwight Burdette / Wikimedia Commons
