A facebook post by the Florida Young Republican Chairwoman took on a life of its own yesterday, leading to backlash from the Republican Party of Florida as well as some half-assed explanation coming from their spokespeople. It got me thinking what’s been done in Virginia over the past five months for the youth vote in Virginia.
Here’s her post, in it’s entirety (emphasis added):
I don’t normally post my thoughts, but at this point, I am so fed up with the GOP in regards to reaching out and engaging voters, specifically young voters. I just spent an entire 20 minutes on a call with Gov. Scott with the “Youth Coalition” of the state party.. a call that the party did not reach out to state youth leaders to ask their opinion of and a coalition I found out about after being invited to be on the call. They took 5 questions and it was the same rhetoric you hear every time you turn on the TV. If the party wants to be serious about engaging the youth whether its teenagers or 40 year olds, they are going to have to come into our backyards and communicate a message in terms that is attractive to young people. I appreciate the effort, but I don’t need to be “thrown a bone” and think it’s cool to be on a conference call with the Governor. We need to be on the streets talking to people and engaging people on their level, not wasting time on a conference call. I guarantee you that a young person not already involved in the political process in some way wouldn’t even venture to participate in a call like the one that was just had and if they did, they would be even less motivated to get involved. Get it together, GOP! You need young people if you ever want to win on a national level again. How about asking us how to reach us, we just might surprise you and we might be more valuable than just posting something on facebook, retweeting something on twitter, or being a body on a conference call for you. #RantOver #ThanksForListening
This is a perpetual problem, one that the Republican Party is going to have to face, sooner rather than later.
Every year lately it feels like it’s the same situation.
Step 1 – We ignore a demographic or make token overtures.
Step 2 – We get trounced in that demographic in the election.
Step 3 – Postgame analysis begins: “We need to work harder reaching to Latinos/African-Americans/youth/women/etc”
Step 4 – ‘Advisory’ boards/teams are formed at post-election meetings and conferences…AKA Repeat Step 1
Kudos to Peret Pass in Florida for calling out the bullshit. Here is the Republican Party of Florida’s response:
Republican Party of Florida spokesman Brian Burgess said it was “disappointing” Pass criticized the effort, which he said is the first-step in the state GOP’s youth outreach.
“The bottom line is…this is the beginning stage of all of this,” Burgess, who noted the call was requested by the Florida Federation of Teenage Republicans, said during an interview. “It is premature to express any sort of disappointment. We are just starting to build out a team of folks.”
Sound familiar? It’s Step 4.
#facepalm
At what point is the Republican Party going to take messaging seriously? It doesn’t take a political scientist to figure out why we lost in November. The party voter bloc exists beyond 40+ white men, but you’d rarely know it by listening to messaging or attending a rally. Tax cuts, government bad, cut spending, strong middle class, private sector creates jobs, etc. How many of the above impacts ME, a 30 year old college student with eight years private sector work under my belt?
Maybe one. Jobs.
What about tuition? Transportation? Entry-level jobs? Housing? These issues don’t need to be in every stump speech, but there needs to be effort. When we interact with elected officials, we don’t want to hear the same empty rhetoric spouted on the stump and on television, you have a captive, engaged audience. Do us the courtesy of engaging us back!
Governor McDonnell and Lt Governor Bolling did just this at the 2009 Young Republican Convention. Both took open questions and answered them freely. It wasn’t canned responses. When I organized a College/Young Republican protest to President Obama appearing with Creigh Deeds at ODU in 2009, McDonnell called me personally to thank me for the work and the steps I was taking for the campaign. It’s a little thing, but it mattered to me, and made me work that much harder.
College students are treated as props, people to point to and say ‘they’re our future!’ African-Americans and Latinos are props, people to point to and say hey look, I have minorities supporting me, you should too!
We’re fortunate this year in Virginia to have a top of the ticket candidate, Ken Cuccinelli who has always related well to young people. Ever since I got into the party, he has been open, accessible and goes out of his way to attend as many Young Republican events, particularly in Northern Virginia, as he can. Pete Snyder not only attended Young Republican meetings since before he was a candidate, but since then has not only sponsored but catered the College Republican convention, and brings a relatable message to younger voters. (not an endorsement of Snyder, just an observation)
So while Virginia should be okay for this cycle, what about moving forward?
Election day is (only) eight months away, and to date I’m not aware of any change in campus outreach for election day activities after the abysmal, horrific and flat-out embarrassing failure of RPV and Victory on Election Day 2012. I’ve spoken to the new College Republican Chairman repeatedly about the importance of beginning to put together gameday operations but no one has reached out to me for ideas, input, etc. This isn’t something I trust RPV to do, given their track record.
And if they’re not working on this, what about the other coalitions we need to put together to win?
Kay Cole James, a rather high-profile African-American woman in Virginia politics the past four years, had a startling world view that doesn’t bode well for the party.
After last November’s election, do you see any new GOP attempts to reach out? I probably had a not-so-pleasant conversation with every conservative and every Republican leader during the 60 days after the election because they have given up on the black community. People were saying “Those precincts were 100 percent, write them off, let’s focus on Hispanics and women and maybe youth.” Well, I was involved in the Republican and conservative movements because I thought those values and ideals and principles were the ones that I needed to save my community. When they write off those precincts, they have written off my community.
You feel used? They’re telling me I was only important and significant to the degree that I could help them stay in power and advance their agenda. When I was no longer useful for that effort, I am no longer useful to them. I believe in self-sufficiency and independence. I believe in principles like “don’t spend more than you earn.” I believe in limited government because limited government gives you the most freedom. But I met recently with young African-American conservative professionals and said, “I have a newsflash for you: The cavalry is not coming. There is no one coming to save us. The conservative movement, the evangelical movement, and the Republican Party don’t care about us anymore.” … I am no longer useful. I had better change my name to Maria Sanchez and then maybe I can get some attention. We use people and then spit them out.
This is someone who for the past four years, and particularly during Governor McDonnell’s campaign, was held up as an example of how we can work to bring in different coalitions.
How much more of a reality check do we need? She’s no longer useful to the party? The woman who ran the 2012 convention? One and done, we’re discarding her and on to the next one?
We keep painting ourselves into a corner, then put together some half-assed way to get out of it. It always starts with a coalition, or brain-storming, etc. My first year in the party, 2009, I was called in for a youth outreach meeting at Virginia Beach Republican Party headquarters. Nothing was really discussed or resolved, some scattered ideas of using a band or how to look cool at events.
This year at the Advance, another committee was formed for…you guessed it, youth outreach!
I appreciate the enthusiasm and willingness of senior party folks to take time and work to come up with a plan to help reach out to young people. But it’s not going to work. It’s not something a breakout group can ascertain, hit the right note and go, YES! We have found the solution!
My younger friends who are Democrats are fired up for T-Mac (I don’t know why). My young friends who are Republicans are fired up for Cuccinelli. But we need to get our shit together beyond this year’s cycle. We need a working, consistent message that reaches out beyond the core bloc of voters that we hear over and over again.
We have a tremendous opportunity this cycle to start putting things in place to see where we’re at for 2014, 2015 and 2016. NOW is the time to start, and not start with a breakout group or committee or conference. We’ve done that. Time and time and time and time and time and time and time again and again and again and again and again…it doesn’t work.
I don’t have all the answers, but I’m willing to help. What I do know is that we can’t repeat the mistakes we’ve already made and look to be making again.
