Earlier this month, we asked collegiettes for your thoughts on the upcoming Presidential election. With readers hailing from over 650 colleges across the country, these results provide a window into the mindsets and priorities of 18-22 year-old women in the United States — an important demographic for campaigning politicians. Your views mean something, not just because what you think matters (obv!), but also because your views can impact how the candidates can better position themselves to win your vote come November 6.
More than 1,200 of you filled out our poll between August 1st and August 15th, 2012 (1,230 of you to be exact). During that time, we’ve seen the Romney camp name Congressman Paul Ryan of Wisconsin as its Vice Presidential pick, setting the stage for next week’s Republican National Convention in Tampa Bay. The Democrats will hold their convention in Charlotte the following week. Needless to say, we’re curious to see how these results can and will change over the next few weeks and months as we draw closer to Election Day.
THE BREAKDOWN
President Obama maintains a comfortable lead amongst a demographic he is expected to control in November, but there are bright spots for Governor Romney. Collegiettes have outlined the issues they care about loud and clear, with a growing national debt, unemployment and the economy trumping healthcare and social issues.
While millennials are viewed in the media as self-centered, self-absorbed and me-driven, their view of the future has both short-term and long-term implications. This audience has seen the immediate devastation of unemployment through the eyes of their parents, who may have been laid off, or their older siblings, who may have had trouble finding a job in the first place. This audience also cares about the country’s long-term economic sustainability and could possibly be more open to short-term cuts in services like social security and Medicaid that presently benefit the generation using their economic future like a credit card.
This could play in Romney’s favor, as he balanced the budget as Governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and saved the Salt Lake Olympics from financial ruin. That is if the issues and his prior successes were presented accordingly in one simple, concise message like Obama’s HOPE and CHANGE mantra four years ago.
These results show that young people want to be actively engaged in the political process, something that favors President Obama, who continues to maintain a pristine use of digital mediums to get his message across. According to the Pew Research Center, Obama is far more active on social media, using it similarly to a traditional news organization, while Romney relies more on others to paint his public image. For instance, Obama was retweeted 150,106 times from June 4-17, 2012, while Romney was only retweeted 8,601 times during that time period. If an average user has 126 followers, that means that Obama’s reach hit 18.913 million people during that period, while Romney only reached 1.083 million. Quite the gap and one that the former Massachusetts Governor cannot afford.
If we were running Romney’s campaign to try to acquire more young voters, our first word of advice would be to bluntly admit that social issues are a non-factor. It may not satisfy the conservative base, but it will play to swing states, unaffiliated party voters, and younger voters who will determine the election. To get younger voters, Romney should vow, as President, not to touch gay rights, abortion, family makeup and religion, thus keeping spending and jobs on front and center and the messaging on course. Whenever prompted on those trickier issues, he should remind potential voters that every second talking about timeless, very evergreen issues are seconds wasted on fixing the problems that place the nation in danger on a daily basis, which according to our survey, collegiettes are concerned about. This ability to seize control of a campaign’s messaging, centering it around two primary issues that mean the most could take undecided voters and place them directly into his camp.
Thoughts? What advice would you give to Governor Romney on connecting with a younger audience? What does President Obama do well in using digital mediums to connect with his base? What do you think is the greatest problem facing our nation today, and who will you be voting for come November, and why? Leave a comment below.
THE RESULTS
Graphic by Kelsey Thorn
Sources:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/blog/2009/jun/29/twitter-users-aver…
http://www.poynter.org/latest-news/mediawire/185033/study-obama-campaign…