Earlier this year, the Republican National Committee launched its Youth Advisory Council to help develop "tactics and strategy" to get the party's message out to young voters in hopes of getting them to vote for Republican candidates. Included among those tactics is boosting the party's content on social media.
Brylin Hollyhand, a 17-year-old co-chair of the Youth Advisory Council, said on American Family Radio Monday the GOP has a messaging problem with people his age and woefully trail Democrats in the growing Generation Z demographic – voters aged 18-29 – which comprises 20% of the U.S. population.
Gen Zers were a force in last November's midterms when voter turnout for that age group was its second-highest for a midterm election in the last 30 years, according to analysis by Tufts University's Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning Engagement (CIRCLE).
The challenge: Gen Zers historically swing left
Hollyhand told AFR show host Jenna Ellis that Republicans just started their youth council this year, almost 20 years after Democrats launched a similar effort in 2005. "Young voters have always swung to the left, and that swing to the left has doubled since the year 2000," he explained.
David Morgan, a senior last fall at Penn State, told The Hill after last year's midterms that the Republicans' failure to connect is more about issues than messaging.
"Better health care, LGBTQ rights, reproductive rights, stuff like that … climate change, those issues are huge for Gen Z, and because the party kind of is a little bit slow on the uptake initially with some of these issues … I think it kind of automatically slanted our generation to go more towards Democrat," he noted.
That's not what Hollyhand found recently.
"I've been on the campaign trail traveling with the RNC over the past few weeks. I spent one week in Des Moines, Iowa, at the famous Iowa State Fair, and I spent another week in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. I made sure I talked to youth voters in both cities; just went up to them asked the question: 'What matters to you most going into the next election?'" he described.
The answer wasn't transgender rights, according to Hollyhand – it was the economy.
Both sides angry with Biden
"All said that their No. 1 issue is the economy. The disastrous economic policies of the Biden-Harris administration are affecting us as well," Hollyhand said.
"I mean, we're having to pay for gas, we're having to pay for food when we go out to eat with our friends, we're paying for groceries, we're paying for road trips. It's costing us just as much as it's costing [older adults], and my generation is realizing that what's going on in the White House right now is not effective. They want change."
Hollyhand shared that young Republicans he encountered were angered by a national debt of $33 trillion, and Democratic youth were bothered because Joe Biden promised to forgive student debt and failed to deliver. The result? "Both groups are mad at him," Hollyhand observed.
So, if Republicans can capture the message, can they capture the method?
Democrats in the 2020 election far exceeded Republicans in connecting on social media, Hollyhand said. The party of the Left made inroads with Gen Zers with "catchy slogans or catchy links or catchy graphics out, and they would even have celebrities come and post them as well," he added.
Gaining ground with younger voters will require Republicans to make an impact on the social media platforms where most of them are – and according to Hollyhand, that's not Facebook or Truth Social.
Go where Gen Zers are … even if China's watching
Hollyhand pointed out Gen Zers are on TikTok – and he argued either they don't know that the platform is owned by a Chinese company or they don't care. They're not concerned with the possible theft of data, he stated.
"People in my class at school don't care that China's looking at their data. They really don't know that," the young conservative offered. "They're on there for the cat videos and videos about Taylor Swift or whatever [but] they're going to be on there regardless, and there's a lot less propaganda on there.
"So, say if Republican voices like myself, if we all boycott the app, there's no opposing viewpoint. I absolutely agree that there are security concerns with TikTok, but my generation's on there, regardless," Hollyhand said.
The Republican National Committee has encouraged GOP presidential candidates to film videos encouraging Gen Zers to mark Nov. 5, 2024 on their calendars and plan to vote either on that day or before. According to Hollyhand, several of the candidates – Donald Trump, Ron DeSantis, Vivek Ramaswamy, Mike Pence, to name a few – have come together to film the videos to ensure the party's message gets out to young voters.
