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The dust has settled and midterm election results showed a lot of things. One of them was just how much the Democratic Party appeals to young people. Or, by contrast, how little conservatism—or at least the GOP's slate of candidates—appeals to voters 30 years and under. Some outlets went so far as to say, "Democrats would have gotten crushed this election without young voters" or that "Gen Z turnout may have stopped a 'red wave.'"
The statistics are stunning: voters under the age of 30 made up 12 percent of turnout, average for a midterm, but Democratic House candidates won voters under 45 years old by 13 points and voters under 30 by 28 points. Young women were especially in favor of Democratic candidates. Exit polls show 72 percent of women under 30 years old voted for Democrats in House races nationwide. The percentage was higher in certain states, like Pennsylvania. "Tuesday's result, though, wasn't because they showed up in larger numbers," CNN's Harry Enten said. "It's because those who did show up were so Democratic."
Like most painful things in life, there's a lesson here for the GOP: we need to make conservative candidates—and ideas—appealing to young people again. We are terrible at doing this. We cannot afford to wait until voters become more conservative on their own. We need to appeal to them now. Too much damage is done from ages 18 to 20, as any older Millennial who voted against Barack Obama knows.
The two arenas where people under the age of 30 spend most of their time—and where conservative ideas are nearly absent—are social media and education. Generation Z and some younger Millennials are the first to have grown up with access to smartphones, including not just web access but social media. Facebook is widely used among older generations but younger Americans gravitate towards Instagram and TikTok—a close look shows these platforms are cesspools of liberal ideology. A new study found that members of Generation Z spend an average of five hours daily in front of a screen. That is a lot of time to be influenced, molded, and outraged by a specific ideology.
For some reason, conservative politicians—with rare exceptions like Texas Representative Dan Crenshaw—have had a hard time adapting to using social media to spread even basic messages: love of liberty, lower taxes, and personal responsibility. As a parent, I am wary of extensive social media use and exorbitant screen time for children, but if young adults are on it, and conservatives hope to win them over, we need to meet them where they're at. Conservatives of all kinds, whether teachers, attorneys, moms, professors, or politicians, should spread what is truly a unique, winning message, on social media and elsewhere.
The same goes for education. Generation Z and Millennials overwhelmingly have attended undergraduate and graduate schools teeming with liberal professors touting progressive ideas. Even if they went into college conservative, before long, they're scared to speak up because their views are so outnumbered and students and faculty who hold progressive views seem so much more aggressive.
Overtly or covertly, schools teach children and young people—from a young age until graduation—that conservative ideas are old-fashioned, bigoted, and overly traditional. Liberal ideas are, on the other hand, enlightened, inclusive, and progressive. Conservatives need to get better at making their views known in higher education. Whether through free-speech lawsuits or just gathering strength in numbers, conservative professors, teachers, administrators, and students must make their presence felt on college campuses, where progressive ideas are the entree for every academic meal.
Conservatism is cool because it's effective. It's freeing, addictive, empowering, and hopeful. But we haven't done a great job of selling it that way, especially to young people, who are inundated with the messages of liberalism nonstop in school and on social media. Instead of ignoring those arenas, and focusing on the 40-something vote, the GOP needs to continue trying to engage young people where they are, to spread the word that conservatism is great for people of all ages, and to bring appeal back to the ideas this country was founded on.
Nicole Russell is a mother of four who has worked in Republican politics. Her writing has appeared in The Atlantic, The Daily Beast, and the Washington Examiner. She is an opinion columnist at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
The views expressed in this article are the writer's own.
