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A few weeks ago, the Yale Daily News featured an article announcing the formation of a group of students supporting Rudy Giuliani’s presidential bid on the front page. As a member of Yale for Obama, I was a bit taken aback by what I saw as unfair publicity. Then I remembered the school paper had run a front page story on the Obama group when it formed - nearly six months ago. It’s a telling sign of where students’ support lies in the 2008 election when three months before the first primary, student groups supporting nearly every Democratic candidate - Gravel supporters are taking their time getting off the ground - are up and running, while just one group has formed backing a GOP candidate and they have yet to meet.
One could argue this has less to do with students in general and more to do with students at Yale, where the student body is overwhelmingly liberal. Yet, in a Democracy Corps poll, 61 percent of all young voters said they would likely vote for a Democratic candidate compared to 34 percent who said they’d vote for a Republican; that 27 point lead stretches to 32 points in “battleground” districts. Rock the Vote’s sixth volume of their bimonthly summary of polls examining young voters’ “level of interest in the 2008 elections, political party identification, and preferences for president and Congress in 2008” is filled with more revealing figures. Senators Obama and Clinton continue to be the frontrunners among young voters and still come out on top in head-to-head matchups against Giuliani, the most popular Republican among 18-29 year olds. This is not, as some conservative pundits like John Stossel allege, because young people are uninformed voters who don’t bother to learn about the candidates or the issues. A survey from the Pew Research Center found that Millennials are paying attention to the presidential campaigns and debates as much as the general electorate and at a higher rate than 30-49 year-olds.
It comes as little surprise that young voters are leaning Democratic after earlier polls like the often-cited New York Times/CBS News/MTV poll showed that Millennials lean left. Indeed, young voters’ values are generally better aligned with those of the Democratic candidates than of the Republicans. Poll after poll confirms that young people care about protecting the environment and our civil liberties, about supporting gay and women’s rights and winning back respect for America through a multilateral foreign policy. These values are embraced, with a rare exception here or there, by the Democratic Party and disregarded by Republicans with similar frequency. Perhaps that’s why Democracy Corps also found that young people believe Democrats do a better job than Republicans handling every policy issue, from health care to Iraq to energy independence to the war on terror to managing the budget.
Some conservative bloggers, like James Durbin, have blamed their inability to win over young voters on a failure to reach out to them. Yet, no amount of outreach from Republicans could overcome a backwards vision for America which simply does not appeal to young people. The Democratic candidates’ engagement on issues, like college affordability, that are important to Millennials - as opposed to blind partisan allegiance - plays a large role in winning their support. Both Clinton and Obama have proposals to make college more affordable and to clean up the student loan industry, while John Edwards has proposed a “College for Everyone” plan which would “pay for one year of public-college tuition, fees, and books for any student who is willing to work hard and stay out of trouble.” Where have the Republicans been on this issue?
Democratic candidates have also worked to establish their presence on college campuses. The Democratic front-runners have hired youth outreach directors - thankfully learning from John Kerry’s mistake of waiting until after he earned the nomination. For example, Obama tapped Rock the Vote’s political director and a co-founder of Facebook to help him with the youth vote, launched a Students for Obama blog, and initiated a Generation Obama campaign. The most effort any Republican has made to win the support of college students has been Mitt Romney sending his son to campuses to avoid having to tell students to their face that he hasn’t really thought much about increasing federal aid for students.
The Democrats’ strength among the youth vote has a firm foundation, and this generation is engaged (and enraged) enough to make a difference. With the youth vote on pace to reach record numbers in 2008, it appears engaging the Millenial generation will finally pay off for the presidential aspirants who have the foresight to court them.