Any zoomers who forgot to tune in to the fifth primary debate Wednesday can take my word for it: You didn’t miss much. In their CNN face-off for second place, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley skipped multiple opportunities to appeal to younger voters.
For example, when asked about mental health, DeSantis fixated on veteran suicide rates — an important issue that he’s primed to discuss given his veteran background, but perhaps a bit tone-deaf to the needs of the younger generation. Haley’s answer struck closer to the mark, as she discussed why the country needs more telehealth, access to mental health care and therapists in schools.
But both candidates missed their chance to acknowledge the loneliness epidemic Generation Z faces today. Given that Democrats aren’t sleeping on Gen Z outreach, it would help for a Republican candidate to talk firmly about depression and self-harm statistics among the nation’s youth.
Generation Z is a political force that Republicans ought not to take for granted. In 2016, those of us born in the 2000s couldn’t vote yet. But in 2020, even when the candidates were less than inspiring, the youth voter turnout rate was the highest since Nixon vs. McGovern in 1972.
Understandably, many Republican strategists trying to maximize primary turnout tend to focus on their core demographic — which is definitely not 22-year-olds. Nonetheless, Gen Z is not the lost cause that that some pessimistic boomers may imagine; in fact, following the last midterms, NPR reported that “just 30 percent of Gen Zers surveyed said they aligned with Democrats, compared to 24 percent for Republicans” (although more young Democrats showed up to the voting booth).
That’s not to say that Republicans should use the word “based” in public or post “sigma edits” on their social media accounts, although that would be based indeed (boomers, don’t Google this, it’s “cringe”). Still, if all the GOP candidates took youth outreach as seriously as Vivek Ramaswamy, they might have a chance with my generation.
Yes, a lot of people hate Ramaswamy’s guts, but there are a few things he’s getting right. Mainly, he appears to understand that Gen Z conservatives exist — and that, growing up in the era of Tucker Carlson, youngsters aren’t energized by issues like Social Security and tax policy. He has talked about the “black hole” in young Americans’ hearts repeatedly, putting forward a message that, at the very least, attempts to elicit our attention.
Ramaswamy has built a youth following that is quite impressive. A Turning Point Action straw poll showed Ramaswamy and Carlson as the favorite potential former President Trump running mates among young conservatives.
The content of his messaging aside, Ramaswamy has made himself the most visible candidate to podcast-listening and TikTok-scrolling Gen Zers. In fact, while Trump joined Fox News for a live interview and DeSantis and Haley fought on CNN’s debate stage Wednesday night, Ramaswamy did a town hall with right-leaning online stars Tim Pool and Candace Owens — which has already surpassed half a million views on YouTube alone. While he clearly was only there because he failed to qualify for the debate stage, Ramaswamy’s engagement with new forms of media ensures that his views are front-and-center for podcast enjoyers like myself.
There is still nothing like a debate stage or a good ol’ Fox News hit, but the influence of nontraditional channels has never been greater — and no one has taken advantage of this more than Ramaswamy. He could overperform in the primaries — an outcome that would shock all except the youth. To attract younger voters, other candidates should adopt some elements of Ramaswamy’s strategy, if not in terms of content at least to mirror his energy on outlets where young Americans are the main audience.
Republican candidates should do a better job at communicating with Gen Z. Things as simple as explaining how their proposed policies will help us or just showing up on the platforms we actually pay attention to would improve the GOP’s image with young voters. It’s time they took their youth outreach strategy seriously.
Juan P. Villasmil is an Intercollegiate Studies Institute editorial fellow at The Spectator World and a Young Voices contributor.