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Harvard Study: Millennials Prefer Democrat For President In 2016

BOSTON (CBS/AP) — A Harvard University survey released Wednesday shows a majority of millennials prefer a Democrat in the 2016 presidential campaign.

More specifically, they prefer Hillary Clinton.

Read: Poll Results (.pdf)

The findings, from a survey of 18-to-29-year-olds conducted from March 18 to April 1, show there is no front-runner in the Republican race.

On the Democratic side, Clinton had 47-percent of the vote. Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who has said she is not running in 2016, was a distant second with eleven percent.

None of the GOP candidates had more than ten percent.

Overall, the millennials preferred a Democrat for president over a Republican, 55-to-40 percent.

The survey polled more than 3,000 18-to-29-year-olds across the country.

OBAMA SUPPORT

Support for President Barack Obama and congressional Democrats appears to have rebounded somewhat among millennials, while Republicans in Congress continue to struggle with the demographic.

Obama had a 50 percent approval rating (up from 43 percent in Harvard's October survey), Democrats in Congress had a 40 percent rating (up from 35 percent in October) and Republicans in Congress remained steady at 23 percent.

UNFAIR JUSTICE SYSTEM?

The survey also found that nearly one in two millennials believe America's criminal justice system is unfair.

It showed about 49 percent of them have little to no confidence that the judicial system can fairly judge people without bias for race and ethnicity. Another 49 percent have "some" to "a lot" of confidence in the judicial system.

The disparity is more pronounced among black millennials, with 66 percent expressing little to no confidence compared to about 43 percent of white millennials and 53 percent of Hispanic millennials.

ISIS, CAMPUS ASSAULTS

On other topics, a solid majority of young adults — about 57 percent — supported sending U.S. ground troops to fight the Islamic State group in the Middle East.

And more than one-third of young women said they've had a personal experience with sexual assault, either as a survivor or through close friends or family members. Of those, 91 percent said the assault occurred outside college campuses.

The survey has a margin of error of 2.4 percentage points.

(TM and © Copyright 2015 CBS Radio Inc. and its relevant subsidiaries. CBS RADIO and EYE Logo TM and Copyright 2015 CBS Broadcasting Inc. Used under license. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)

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