These poll numbers help explain why the Biden campaign joined TikTok

President Joe Biden’s re-election campaign has joined TikTok, despite sources saying earlier that the campaign wouldn’t formally use the social-media platform.

Numbers from last month’s NBC News poll may help explain the Biden reversal, because they show the president struggling with young TikTok users, especially compared with young voters who don’t use the platform.

The findings are consistent with earlier results from the November 2023 NBC News poll, as well as with other polls showing Biden’s struggles with younger voters.

Eleven percent of all voters in the most recent NBC poll are ages 18-34 and say they use TikTok at least once day. They disproportionately identify as being Democrats over Republicans (47% Democrats to 30% Republicans), and they overwhelmingly prefer Democrats over Republicans in terms of control of Congress (56% to 40%).

Yet in a hypothetical general-election matchup, these Democratic-leaning young voters narrowly break for Donald Trump over Biden, 44% to 42%. Though the result is well within the margin of error for these 108 total voters (plus or minus 9.4 percentage points), the difference in level of support between Biden and congressional Democrats is significant.

Meanwhile, just 23% of these voters approve of Biden’s job as president.

Now compare these young TikTok-using voters with other young voters in the poll who say they don’t use the social-media platform at least once a day. They represent 14% of all voters in the poll.

These non-TikTok-using young voters are slightly less Democratic leaning (12 points more Democratic in party identification) and are essentially tied in congressional preference (47% Democratic, 46% Republican).

But their vote in a hypothetical Biden vs. Trump matchup