GOP Continues to Lose Young Voters

Polling shows that young voters are not hopping on the Trump train – but the implications may bode ill for the GOP for years beyond the November election.

Salon political writer Simon Maloy writes that with each successive election going back to 2008, the GOP has been losing younger voters and failing to attract new voters.

Though 45 percent of 18 to 29 years olds voted to re-elect President George W. Bush in 2004, nominee John McCain had only 32 percent of the same demographic in 2008, and in 2012, presidential nominee Mitt Romney performed slightly better but still got swamped by Barack Obama in that age cohort, Maloy writes.

But Donald Trump is underperforming even McCain's showing. An Aug. 1 to 3 McClatchy-Marist poll shows Trump with just 9 percent support among 18 to 29 year olds, Fox News' Aug. 3 survey shows Trump's support among voters under 35 at 23 percent, just ahead of Johnson, and he's at 15 percent with voters under 30 in a July 31 to Aug. 1 Economist/YouGov poll. 

"The risk for the Republicans is that they've given away an entire generation of voters to the Democrats," Maloy writes.

"Undoing that damage" will take years, he adds, and the GOP's own analysis on the party's direction acknowledged as much, noting the Republican National Committee needs to "more effectively highlight our young leaders and fundamentally change the tone we use to talk about issues and the way we are communicating with voters."

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