Last updated on July 17th, 2023 at 06:59 pm
As the Republican Party gets older, the electorate is getting younger. A new study showed why this demographic trend could mean extinction for the Republican Party.
A new Pew Research study has found that millennials now equal baby boomers as the largest segment of the electorate in the US.
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As of April 2016, an estimated 69.2 million Millennials (adults ages 18-35 in 2016) were voting-age U.S. citizens – a number almost equal to the 69.7 million Baby Boomers (ages 52-70) in the nation’s electorate, according to a new Pew Research Center analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data. Both generations comprise roughly 31% of the voting-eligible population.
Last month, Generation X (ages 36-51) and members of the Silent and Greatest generations (ages 71 and older) comprised about 25% and 12% of the electorate, respectively.
The Baby Boomer voting-eligible population peaked in size at 72.9 million around 2004. Since the Boomer electorate is declining in size, it is only a matter of time before Millennials are the largest generation in the electorate.
While the demographics of the potential electorate are getting younger, the Republican Party continues to rely on older white conservative voters as the backbone of their party. One has to look no further than Donald Trump to understand the problem that Republicans are facing.
The Republican Party leadership understood that a candidate like Marco Rubio could potentially have crossover appeal to the growing younger electorate, but since the rank and file of the Republican Party is older, conservative, and more extreme, they rejected Rubio and instead went for one of their demographic peer, Donald Trump.
Trump has a net (-20) approval rating with millennial Republicans. Trump has an over net approval rating of (-57) with millennial voters. The Republican Party is facing extinction because the growing segment of the electorate is completely turned off by their party.
The problem with millennials as Democrats found out in 2010 and 2014 is that they have not fully embraced their potential political power by voting in all elections. Once millennials show the same dedication to voting in all elections that they have demonstrated in presidential years, the Republican Party will be in big trouble.
Republicans can try to make themselves feel good by nominating Donald Trump, but they can’t hold back the inevitable wave of political progress that is coming with the millennial generation.
Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
