Just two days after President Joe Biden announced he would not seek reelection and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris, Marist College released a poll examining the new landscape.

"It was a quick one-day poll, and normally we would be doing multi-days, but I think we were trying to get in a quickly changing environment a snapshot of how the public was reacting to this," said Lee Miringoff, Marist College Institute for Public Opinion director.

Miringoff said while there is still a long way to go, there was a feeling from Democrats the race against Republican Donald Trump is now more competitive.

"There was an indication that Harris not only in terms of the top line, which became closer and makes it all very competitive, but that Democrats were showing a little more enthusiasm than they were," he said. 

A major concern for Biden supporters was the 81-year-old's ability to attract and turn out the youth vote. According to the Tuesday poll, among generations, Harris has the most support with Gen Z and Millennials.

"I think in terms of the numbers, we see that Harris is doing better against Trump than Biden was among younger people than not the kind of numbers that Biden did four years ago when he did very well among young people," Miringoff said.

There remain some reasons for caution, even as the Harris campaign has quickly embraced Gen Z and meme culture. For instance, among 18-29-year-olds, Miringoff said there is a higher degree of uncertainty about their ultimate choice and there is no indication there will be better turnout than past elections.

"You fall in that age group from 21 to 13 (percent) in terms of population as opposed to people who say they're definitely going to vote. Not unusual. We always see something along those lines but we are seeing is it's not different. There's no enthusiasm that's in some way atypical," he said. 

Gov. Kathy Hochul, who along with the New York State Democratic Party is focusing on enrolling college voters and encouraging them to vote, believes Harris is the candidate who can buck the historical trend of youth apathy.

"When you get a woman who is going to be historic in every respect of the word, energizing young people, showing them the possibilities and she has such charisma, she has such a presence, I think that's what's going to propel young people to really fully participate in the process," Hochul said.

According to the poll, Harris is not doing as well among white voters as Biden was but is essentially making up the difference with young voters and minorities. Miringoff said, in what appears to be a close race, if candidates are able to get a bump in any demographic, both with preference and turnout, it could be a deciding factor in swing states.