‘Growing Up GOP’: Young Republicans Seek Messaging Strategy for Millennials

Messaging — what we say to communicate our message — is critical. There is messaging, however, and then there is actually reaching the kids — words to eyes, sound to ears. Republicans and conservatives can word things perfectly, but if the younger generation is never exposed to the message, failure still results. Here is Andrew Egger writing at The Daily Signal:

Four years after a wave of millennials swept Barack Obama into his second presidential term, the Republican Party is redoubling efforts to repackage its conservative platform to appeal to young voters.

A new report from the College Republican National Committee, “Growing Up GOP: Fresh Ideas From the Fresh Faces of the Republican Party,” outlines strategies the GOP needs to undertake to accomplish just that.

“We’re the party that understands Washington can’t run your life better than you can run your life,” Alexandra Smith, national chairman of the College Republican National Committee, writes in the report’s opening letter. “So why don’t more millennials vote Republican? Simple: The Grand Old Party has gotten stale.”

With a mind toward confronting that staleness, the “Growing Up GOP” report, produced in partnership with the Republican State Leadership Committee and New Republican, identifies possible policy and messaging inroads designed to bridge that voter gap.

A change of messaging is of particular importance because, the report argues, millennials already tend to share certain core GOP values, such as a desire for freedom and self-determination and a skepticism of central authority. But the way their elders traditionally express these values can prove a turnoff to a youth bloc that frames its political problems in different ways.

For example, according to the report’s polling, 45 percent of millennials—defined for this poll as adults age 18 to 29—“think hard work is what gets you ahead in America these days.” But 49 percent say luck and connections are the greater share of success.

Read more: The Daily Signal

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