From TikToking to student town halls, the 2024 Republican presidential candidates have taken a wide range of approaches to courting younger voters.
But a new Harvard poll indicates the task might be an uphill battle, as many young people may be less likely to vote in the next election.
Just 49 percent of respondents aged 18 to 29 who say they voted in the 2020 election say they “definitely” plan to vote in the next presidential election, according to a new Harvard University Institute of Politics poll. Seventeen percent said they will “probably” vote.
Just 35 percent said they will “definitely” vote in 2024 primaries and caucuses, with another 20 percent saying they will “probably” vote.
The poll found fewer young Republican voters intend to cast ballots in 2024: 56 percent intend to vote in the next election, down from 66 percent in 2019.
“The bad news is that fewer young people intend to vote in this election compared to the Biden–Trump election of 2020,” IOP polling director John Della Volpe said in a statement. “The good news is there’s still time, and we know what Gen Z and young Millennials want to see and hear. They want evidence that democracy works, that government can address our challenges, and that there’s a meaningful difference between the two parties.”
The poll’s release comes days before former New Jersey governor Chris Christie is set to launch a “Christie on Campus” two-day tour of college campuses in New Hampshire, where he will visit Franklin Pierce University, Keene State College, the University of New Hampshire, and New England College.
“Colleges and college aged students have been traditionally overlooked or actively ignored by Republicans,” the campaign said in a press release announcing the series of town-hall events. “This fact, combined with President Biden not participating in the New Hampshire primary, presents an opportunity to turnout new and independent voters.”
“Christie has long advocated for Republicans to expand turnout by talking to people and going to places that Republicans historically avoid,” the release adds.
Last month, Christie spoke to students at Dartmouth College, where he drew a crowd of 250 people and took substantive student questions about a host of issues, including the economy, jobs, and immigration.
“If you’re a young voter who’s interested in stopping Trump and having a new leadership in, then voting for Chris Christie in New Hampshire is one of the best ways to do it right now,” Christie spokesman Karl Rickett told National Review. “I think young voters are a little . . . disappointed that people haven’t really been direct in how they talk about Trump, at least on the Republican primary side.
Florida governor Ron DeSantis and former U.S. ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley have pointed to the strength of their student groups on campuses across the country as evidence of their young-voter outreach.
“With over 100 chapters across more than 37 states, Students for DeSantis continues to work to help elect Governor DeSantis as our next President,” Marcel Teloma, the director of Students for DeSantis, said in a statement to National Review. “We’ve seen incredible support and enthusiasm from young voters and college students on campuses and our chapters are at work connecting with them.”
In September, the Haley campaign launched Young Americans for Nikki and Students for Haley, with registered members across 45 states. At the time, 25 U.S. colleges had chapters of Students for Haley.
Former president Donald Trump and biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy have taken a flashier approach to courting the youth vote.
Trump has made visits to events that young voters tend to frequent, including UFC fights and college football games. He even visited a college fraternity, as Semafor recently reported. He’s also appeared on podcasts geared toward young people, including the Full Send podcast.
“President Trump has all sorts of celebrities and famous people that are promoting his presidency, are saying positive things about him,” a senior Trump adviser told the outlet. “People that you might not expect for a Republican presidential candidate: You look at Kodak Black, you look at what Lil Wayne has said, you look at Lil Pump, you look at Sexyy Red. You look at Jorge Masvidal, you look at Jelly Roll. You look at all these various performers from all the way across the spectrum — in addition to athletes.”
The Trump campaign has also focused its messaging on issues important to young voters such as rising interest rates and the cost of living, an adviser told Semafor.
Ramaswamy caught flak from his fellow Republican presidential contenders in September after he joined TikTok, where he has since posted more than 30 videos to his 219,000 followers.
“I have a radical idea for the Republican Party. We need to win elections. Part of how we win elections is reaching the next generation of young Americans where they are,” Ramaswamy said when Fox Business Network host Stuart Varney asked why he joined the Chinese-owned video app.
He dismissed concerns about the app’s ties to China by arguing that the only way the U.S. can declare independence from China is if Republicans win the presidential race.
He made a splashy debut on the app, collaborating with influencer Jake Paul to create a video of the pair dancing together along with on-screen text suggesting that Ramaswamy is one of the few politicians working to connect with younger voters.
Paul captioned the video: “Getting Vivek on Tik Tok because i believe our politicians of the future should connect with gen z and milennials on social where we all live and breathe. Its bizarre that in this day and age our presidents have no connection with us via social. Only the occasional tweets. Meet @Vivek Ramaswamy.”
Even former Arkansas governor Asa Hutchinson, whose campaign is all but over since he failed to qualify for the most recent GOP debate, told National Review his campaign is “heavily courting young voters.”
“Young people are frustrated with leaders that fight all the time and a Washington that can’t solve problems.” he said in a statement. “This perception discourages young people from participating.” He pointed to student outreach he’s done on “numerous” college campuses where he “listened to students and answered every question.”
On Thursday, Hutchinson will also host a student town-hall meeting at Drake University in Des Moines, where he says he plans to focus on their top issue, the economy, as well as trust in government and student-loan debt.
Around NR
• On the ground in Iowa, Audrey Falhberg finds Trump still outshines DeSantis. Reporting from DeSantis’s rally celebrating his completion of the “full Grassley” — making a visit to each of the state’s 99 counties, that is — she finds the energy around DeSantis cannot live up to the idol worship Trump still receives from many voters.
…though it’s an impressive feat, the excitement level in Newton on Saturday afternoon paled in comparison with the production that Trump put on earlier that day at an even smaller venue bar in Ankeny, where many supporters acted more like they were at a sports game than a political event: whooping and cheering throughout the former president’s speech and standing atop tables to snap photos. Trump is relishing every moment. “We’re in good shape with DeSanctimonious. He seems to be dropping like a very, very sick bird in the ground, slowly into the ground,” Trump told a packed crowd of supporters.
• After DeSantis completed his tour of all 99 Iowa counties, Dan McLaughlin wrote that “nobody will ever say DeSantis was outworked,” pointing out that Donald Trump has made it to just eleven of the state’s counties in this campaign while Nikki Haley, who has focused more heavily on New Hampshire, has made it to 21 Iowa counties.
Ever since DeSantis abandoned an early policy of limiting his press appearances to friendly venues, he’s also done a punishing daily schedule of interviews, with regular press availability to Iowa media. He’s done the state fair in the broiling midsummer heat, and the Thanksgiving family leader forum. Throw in visits to New Hampshire and South Carolina, governing Florida through a hurricane, debating Gavin Newsom on Fox News and the other Republican candidates, and raising money, and the 45-year-old DeSantis has been tireless.
• Jim Geraghty writes about the Florida Democratic Party’s “baffling and likely self-destructive” decision not to hold a presidential primary this year:
Now, Marianne Williamson and Dean Phillips aren’t exactly political goliaths, but in a cycle where one of the Democratic messages is that your vote for the wrong candidate is a potential threat to American democracy — pause for irony — there’s something spectacularly perfect about a state party concluding that the only way to preserve democracy is to cancel an expected primary election.
• Geraghty offers a bit of advice he says neither Haley nor DeSantis wants to hear:
I’m about to write something that neither campaign wants to hear but that they need to hear: Another six weeks of attempting to trash the other is only going to increase the already-high odds of Trump’s becoming the nominee. So why not skip the mutually assured destruction-like dynamic, the fight to be the last non-Trump candidate standing, and work out a unity ticket? The pair would probably work well together on a ticket and in a presidency. DeSantis–Haley, or Haley–DeSantis? Work it out amongst yourselves; as Dick Cheney can tell you, the vice presidency can be an extremely powerful office if you play your cards right.
• Audrey Fahlberg writes that DeSantis is betting everything on Iowa in this final campaign stretch and has “sought to distract from . . . behind-the-scenes turmoil by keeping the focus on his endorsements from Republican governor Kim Reynolds, Evangelical leader Bob Vander Plaats, and more than 100 faith leaders in Iowa”:
Those endorsements, DeSantis backers are quick to point out, are paired with a strong ground game in Iowa: Never Back Down has knocked on more than 718,000 doors, secured nearly 30,000 commitments to caucus for the Florida governor, and has 30 full-time paid staff on the ground, a super PAC official tells NR.