Ron Meyer uses a Washington Examiner column to ponder prospects for Donald Trump to bring more millennials to the Republican Party.
No polling was more wrong last November than those predicting how millennials would vote. More than 2 million more millennials voted for President Trump than was forecast by millennial polling averages. He polled at 25 percent among people under 30, but won 37 percent of this demographic. That’s a higher percentage than the Republican nominees in 2012 or 2008.
Despite this, however, 37 percent is still only 37 percent. With protests flaring up across the country and more young people taking to social media, Trump and the Republican Party have to wonder about their future. In 2016, millennials overtook all other generations as the biggest voting bloc in the nation.
Will young citizens get more conservative as they age? Can Trump help bring more young voters into the GOP? Or will young people be scared away from the party by Trump’s controversial style?
Thought leaders and the most successful activists and organizers on the Right aren’t sure what to expect in the next four years. …
… What some call “work,” others call “challenges.” With a president rightly or wrongly demonized by the media and other critics for frequent politically incorrect and fact-stretching comments and tweets, it becomes difficult to defend Trump to other millennials.
“The future of the young conservative movement under President Trump will be one that faces many challenges,” said Nadia Elgendy, who was recently elected chairwoman of the College Republicans in Virginia.
“I think Trump will be good for the movement in the sense that he will really test the strength of the GOP.”