Results form a recent poll by Pew revealed that 62% of voters surveyed are already “worn out” by Presidential Election coverage. Traditionally, interest in presidential candidates steadily increases from Memorial Day onward, but 2024, which features an incumbent vs. a candidate who has already served one term, is a unique scenario where the top two choices are known commodities. Independent candidate Robert Kennedy Jr’s campaign has yet to change the overall feeling of most voters.
More than half of Americans (58%) say they are following news about candidates for the 2024 presidential election very or fairly closely. Another 28% say they aren’t following it too closely, and 13% aren’t following it closely at all.
“Americans who are following election news closely are less likely than those who aren’t to be worn out by election coverage.” Pew reported. “Four-in-ten Americans who say they follow news about candidates very closely say they are worn out by so much coverage, compared with 77% of those who say they don’t follow it closely at all.”
Republicans are slightly less likely than Democrats to say they are worn out by election coverage (58% vs. 66%). This gap is driven by conservative Republicans (55%), who are less likely than moderate or liberal Republicans (65%) to feel worn out. Americans are more likely to say they mostly get political news because they happen to come across it (57%) than because they are looking for it (42%).
Just a quarter of Americans ages 18 to 29 say they mostly get political news because they are looking for it, compared with 60% of those 65 and older – a gap of 35 percentage points.
