Capturing the Millennial Vote
March 4, 2016
The millennial vote is one that is hard to get the pulse of, but CPAC put a panel together to figure out how to do just that.
Moderated by Dana Perino from The Five on Fox News, the panel of Rob Bluey of The Daily Signal, Benny Johnson of IJ Review, and Katie Pavlich of Townhall discussed the many factors that must be considered when targeting the millennial vote.
The millennial generation is currently one quarter of the voting population, and they have some of the most unique viewpoints.
From Grumpy Cat to Rebecca Black, millennial values are so broad, that they can’t be fit into a single box
Bluey explained that one reason millennials are hard to group is because they “don’t have faith in institutions.”
Millennials have low religious participation, low marriage rates, and higher distrust of other institutions, including businesses. These life choices are more generally associated with liberal politics.
One reason millennials lean toward the left is because many of them are recently graduated, and their campuses fail to provide a balanced political discourse on college campuses.
According to Pavlich this liberal indoctrination goes hand-in-hand with low patriotism.
“Only 38 percent of millennials see America as the greatest country in the world,” Pavlich said.
While it would seem that the conservatives have their hands full earning the trust of millennials, there are many silver linings for conservative young people.
According to Johnson one of the defining moments in a millennial life is their first paycheck and, “seeing how much of your minimum wage paycheck is taken away for social security.”
Millennials lean toward economic liberty because they do not believe they are going to see one penny of money back from the programs they pay into.
Along with economic liberty, millennials are much more pro-life than previous generations. Johnson claims that technological advances are to blame for this switch.
“When you see that ultrasound, that changes a lot of people’s views right there,” Johnson said.
The final tool that the conservative movement must utilize is social media.
The panel felt that the millennial vote is far from lost for the conservative movement and the Republican Party. However, millennials are nothing if not unpredictable.