With a plan to double the minimum wage, curb climate change and make college free for most American families, Democrats are speaking the language of the younger generation.
However, they’re not getting the young vote, especially in Ohio.
A report released Tuesday, on the second day of the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, shows Republicans made larger gains in turning out the youth vote in the 2016 presidential primaries and caucuses than eight years ago when Barack Obama was elected.
Democrats, meanwhile, lost nearly half their youth vote in some states, among them Ohio, where young Republican voters now outnumber Democrats, according to the Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning & Engagement (CIRCLE) at Tufts University in Massachusetts.
The organization advocates for civic engagement among youth. Its report put Ohio in the cross hairs for a couple reasons: Among 20 states with information available for the 2008 and 2016 presidential primaries, Ohio had the largest dip in youth voters, and the decrease is entirely driven by a lack of enthusiasm in the Democratic primary.
To determine youth turnout, CIRCLE compared U.S. Census population estimates with voter rolls and exit polls reported by major media outlets. The process, though relying on estimates and surveys that produce a degree of error, was applied to all states.
Numbers favor GOP
The idea that many millennials didn’t participate this year, at least in Ohio, runs counter to the belief that Bernie Sanders energized the young.
The socialist senator from Vermont walked into the Democratic convention this week with more youth votes than Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump combined, according to widely reported analysis by CIRCLE and Edison Research, a private firm that does exit polling.
Clinton won the nomination, though. And she did so in part by carrying Ohio, where the ranks of young Democrat voters plummeted since 2008.
CIRCLE estimates that the number of Ohio voters younger than 30 years old fell from 479,000 in 2008 to 425,000 in 2016. Only four of the 20 states with information available experienced a decline.
Across the board, the drop was most pronounced among Democratic primary voters. And Ohio lost the most, shedding 169,000 youth votes, or nearly half the 349,000 young people who voted in the 2008 Democratic primary when Clinton beat Barack Obama in Ohio.
Ohio’s primary this year, however, was particularly unusual. There were reports of many Democrats switching parties to vote against Trump, delivering Gov. John Kasich his only state victory.
Bad news for Dems
The apparent lack of enthusiasm among young Democrats in swing-state Ohio could alter the outcome of the general election and future elections.
Exit polls showed four in five millennial voters backed Sanders in Ohio.
Bailey Sandin, a 20-year-old University of Akron student, understands her generation’s support for Sanders’ populist proposals.
“When you’re staring at upwards of $20,000 in student loan debt and you know you’ll be paying it off for the rest of your life, of course you’re going to support [Sanders’ ban on public college tuition], even if you know it might not happen,” she said.
Sandin supported Clinton throughout the primary as the more practical choice. Now that Clinton has the nomination, she said many of her friends have come around not because they adore the former first lady but “because they believe in the Democratic Party” and will vote “by default.”
But in Michigan, Sanders beat Clinton as the state’s Democratic youth vote more than doubled from 2008 to 2016.
Fixing the issue
Meanwhile, Clinton did well where young voters stayed home. She won 11 of the 14 states, including Ohio, where voter participation fell among young Democrats.
The low turnout helped her in the primary but could hurt her — and the party — in the future.
The Beacon Journal on Wednesday asked the Clinton campaign for a strategy to reach young voters and an interview with a Clinton delegate to the convention was offered in response.
De’Vante Montgomery, 19, a Miami University student from Cincinnati and the youngest delegate for Clinton, said he would direct young people to the platform and policies Clinton has adopted from Sanders, including the higher minimum wage and free college.
He also said that as a member of the LGBT community, he is heartened to see the diversity at the convention. Younger generations are more accepting of different lifestyles and diversity, he said.
“This is the gayest convention in the history of the United States.”
Doug Livingston can be reached at 330-996-3792 or dlivingston@thebeaconjournal.com. Follow on Twitter: @ABJDoug.