The GOP’s Problem With Young Voters Is Only Getting Worse While Mitt Romney missed benchmarks with many disparate demographic groups on Election Day, the Republican Party might be said to have a single, overriding challenge moving forward: to adjust to generational change. Over the last decade, a wave of new, diverse, and socially moderate voters has reshaped the electorate, allowing President Obama to win the popular vote without much, if any, improvement over John Kerry among voters who were eligible to participate in the 2004 presidential election. Romney won voters over age 30 by a 1.5-point margin, but their slight preference for the Republican nominee was swamped by Obama’s decisive 24-point victory among 18-29 year old voters.
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The GOP’s Problem With Young Voters Is Only Getting Worse

While Mitt Romney missed benchmarks with many disparate demographic groups on Election Day, the Republican Party might be said to have a single, overriding challenge moving forward: to adjust to generational change. Over the last decade, a wave of new, diverse, and socially moderate voters has reshaped the electorate, allowing President Obama to win the popular vote without much, if any, improvement over John Kerry among voters who were eligible to participate in the 2004 presidential election. Romney won voters over age 30 by a 1.5-point margin, but their slight preference for the Republican nominee was swamped by Obama’s decisive 24-point victory among 18-29 year old voters.

Youth Vote 2012 Turnout: Exit Polls Show Greater Share Of Electorate Than In 2008 Young voters represented a greater share of the national electorate Tuesday than four years ago, once again voting for President Barack Obama by a huge margin, boosting his reelection. Voters from ages 18 to 29 represented 19 percent of all those who voted on Tuesday, according to the early National Exit Poll conducted by Edison Research. That’s an increase of one percentage point from 2008. Obama captured 60 percent youth vote, compared with Mitt Romney’s 36 percent.
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Youth Vote 2012 Turnout: Exit Polls Show Greater Share Of Electorate Than In 2008

Young voters represented a greater share of the national electorate Tuesday than four years ago, once again voting for President Barack Obama by a huge margin, boosting his reelection.

Voters from ages 18 to 29 represented 19 percent of all those who voted on Tuesday, according to the early National Exit Poll conducted by Edison Research. That’s an increase of one percentage point from 2008. Obama captured 60 percent youth vote, compared with Mitt Romney’s 36 percent.

Obama answers top 5 questions of young Americans in Presidential Youth Debate; Romney declines.

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Rocking the vote means inspiring young people to show up, cast a ballot

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12,500 young people turn 18 every day and the key to November’s election will be registering them, then turning them out to vote. “If young people don’t think their vote is powerful, all they have to do is watch the news right now and see how hard so many people are working to take their vote away from them,”

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Young Americans for Obama

Young Americans are at the foundation of this campaign. In 2008, young people came together to organize and lead a movement for change that helped Barack Obama win a historic election. Now, three years later, even more is at stake. We need to grow faster and fight harder to protect the progress we’ve made and continue to work for more. Young activists will lead the grassroots effort across the country to build this campaign for 2012 from the ground up.

With our help, President Obama has successfully repealed “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” to allow gay men and women to serve openly in the military. We instituted health care reform with the Affordable Care Act, which allows young people to stay on their parents’ health insurance until they’re 26. The President has set forth clear plans to extend employment opportunities for economically disadvantaged young people through summer job and training programs, invest billions in public schools and community colleges, cut taxes for youth-owned small businesses, and strengthen our economy.

But our work isn’t over—we need to come together to defend the progress we’ve made and fight for more. The 2012 election will depend on us, as a generation of young leaders, to get the word out about the kind of politics we want to see. We’re the ones we’ve been waiting for, and we’re greater together.

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