We recently reported that multiple polls suggest millennials are unhappy with President Obama.

But an astute analysis by Francesca Chambers, the Editor of Red Alert Politics, says they aren’t rushing to join the Republican Party, either.

Though less college students now identify as Democrats, the percentage of college students who say they are Republicans remains roughly unchanged, increasing by a mere percentage point. The percentage of 18-29 year olds overall who self-identify as either Republican or Democrat was also roughly unmoved. In April, 39 percent of young Americans called themselves Democrats. Now, 38 percent consider themselves Democrats. Then, 23 percent of young Americans claimed to be Republicans. Now, 22 percent say they’re Republicans.

Nothing in Harvard’s research suggested that this disappointment with Obama is causing college students to move toward the Republican Party en masse. Given the theoretical option to recast their vote in the 2012 presidential election, only four percent of young people who voted for Obama said they’d switch their vote to 2012 Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney. Even more telling: eight percent of young Obama voters who said they wished they hadn’t voted for Obama wouldn’t have wanted to vote for Romney, either. Instead, they wish they’d voted for “someone else” entirely.

The Obama administration has clearly dropped the ball with young people, but the GOP hasn’t quite figured out how to pick it up and run with it. Even in Virginia, where Cuccinelli won the 18-24 year old vote thanks to some very zealous young libertarian volunteers and a concerted effort by the College Republicans, the GOP candidate failed to win the 18-29 year old demographic as a whole. Democratic Governor-elect Terry McAullife took 45 percent of the youth vote and Cuccinelli took 40 percent.

In New Jersey, Christie crushed his Democratic opponent in every category but one: 18-29 year olds. Democratic gubernatorial candidate Barbara Buono – whose candidacy was never a real threat to Christie – still won the youth vote, 51 percent to Christie’s 49 percent.

The GOP’s performance with young people clearly continues to be one of its weak points.

Thankfully, the Republican National Committee seems to be taking this problem more seriously than it has in the past, and the National Republican Congressional Committee has vastly expanded its digital department and traded in dry press releases for BuzzFeed style listicles and humorous tumblrs. Meanwhile, conservative non-profit Generation Opportunity is upping its game on college campuses by holding tailgates to encourage young people to “Opt-Out” of Obamacare.

The efforts of these groups and other groups working to spread free-market principles to young people aren’t going unnoticed, but the numbers don’t lie. The GOP has clearly not yet come up with a formula to make the magic happen with young people.


 
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