Most millennials don't like Republicans. But they aren't sold on Democrats, either.

Millennials protesting.
(Image credit: Jeff Swensen/Getty Images)

Half of millennials expect to vote for Democrats in the 2018 midterm elections, and only a quarter anticipate they'll support Republicans, a new NBC News/GenForward poll released Monday found. But the generation's distaste for the GOP — only 24 percent view it favorably — does not equate to uncomplicated enthusiasm for the Democratic Party.

Millennials' overall favorable and unfavorable views of Democrats are in a statistical tie (the margin of error is 3.95 points), though a marked disparity is seen between the views of white millennials and their peers of color.

The same survey found about two-thirds of millennials disapprove of Congress, President Trump, and the direction of the country as a whole, though nearly the same proportion (59 percent) are optimistic about their personal futures.

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More than 8 in 10 agreed that "the government is run by a few big interests looking out for themselves and their friends," a view held without racial division. Millennials are skeptical of the ability of elections to effect real change, but they are far more confident in the power of community groups to improve America. See more from the poll results here.

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Bonnie Kristian

Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.