The gloves were out for young voters who had brutal opinions of the GOP. Millennials surveyed by a College Republican National Committee focus group said Republicans were "old fashioned," closed-minded" and even "racist." The group’s 95-page report released Monday is titled Grand Old Party For A Brand New Generation.
Voters under 30 criticized the party for its stance on issues. The report showed that 44% of young Republicans are in support of same-sex marriage. “Of that 50% of those folks said if a candidate doesn't favor same-sex marriage even if they agree with him or her on everything else they won’t vote for that person,” Jonathan Capehart said on Monday’s The Cycle. “What this report shows is they have to change some of the ingredients.”
Yet, the report isn't all bad news. It provides the GOP with a road map to winning the youth vote. “I love this report and anyone who is not interested in learning when they are going wrong is probably not going to be successful in the future,” host S.E. Cupp said. “Millennials are 80 million people in this county, and the biggest generation in history.”
Through Cupp's research with young millennials she has found that they believe the problem is “the outrageous statements made by errant Republican voices."
"If we can contain and get disciplined candidates I actually feel really good about some of these policy inroads for young people," she said.
In 2012 President Obama’s 60% of the youth vote ensured his re-election. So, how can this party get hip for 2016 knowing they need this generation? They have to listen to what this report suggest: focus on what the millennials and young conservatives want which is a party that cares more.
Yet, “a lot of conservatives do care and yet I think what’s happened is the elite leadership of the GOP party has embraced the values of cold capitalism above all these other values,” Ari Melber said. “I think it’s fascinating that millennials and some young conservatives are saying we have to care more and the policy ingredients are still going to be ones we are going to debate about, but let’s stop using cold capitalism to drive every policy today.”