title:  New Poll: Clinton Picks Up Unprecedented, Historical Support Among Young Voters
text: Several weeks ago, polls and pundits were spelling doom and gloom for Hillary Clinton. Why? Support among millennial voters   the biggest voting bloc in the country   were dwindling for the Democrat nominee, and were instead attracted to third party candidates Gary Johnson and Jill Stein.Two polls, released within days of each other, showed over a third of millennials backing a third party candidate, severely cutting into Clinton s chances of winning over the Obama coalition.But as the race comes to a close, millennials are finally seeing the big picture: do we elect and accomplished, qualified politico or a racist, sexual predator? Luckily, millennials have chosen the former over the latter.A new poll just released by USA Today   Rock The Vote, with the help of Ipsos, found that Hillary Clinton holds a 40 point lead over Donald Trump when it comes to millennial voters, 68 percent to 20 percent. Johnson nabbed 8 percent and Stein a dismal 1 percent.Almost 7 in 10 young people now support Clinton. To put that into context, President Obama won the youth vote with 66 percent support in 2008, and 67 percent in 2012. That means that Clinton is on track, just barely, to ushering in a historical and unprecedented win among young voters which would propel her to the White House.A study conducted by the Center for Research and Information on Civic Learning and Engagement at Tufts University found that, when it came to the 2012 election, the youth vote was the decisive factor in who won. The study found that because millennial voters came out in droves to support Obama, at least 80 electoral votes were awarded, all from key swing states   Pennsylvania, Ohio, Florida and Virginia. Coincidentally, all those states are considered swing states in the 2016 election (with the exception of Virginia).If 68 percent of just half of the millennial population votes for Hillary Clinton on November 8, she wins, hands down, and that s not even taking into consideration her gains among white, college educated women and men (who typically vote Republican). That s also not taking into consideration her gains made with Asian-Americans and Cuban Americans.Clinton has the numbers to win. She has made gains all across the board, and Trump is under-performing Mitt Romney in crucial swing states, with typical GOP voters, and with those who typically don t vote GOP. The only thing that can hold Clinton back is Democrats not showing up to vote, especially young people.This is why this year s Get Out the Vote will be detrimental to results in the coming weeks. With early voting underway (in record numbers), Democrats have a real opportunity to start off on strong footing and cruise into the November general election.Featured image via Ethan Miller/Getty Images