Back in April, more than 60 percent of millennial women said they were “scared” of Donald Trump.
Now that he is the official Republican nominee for president, his unfavorable polling numbers remain high with young voters — and the socially conservative GOP platform and his running mate Mike Pence aren’t doing him any favors.
“I think it really hurts the Republican Party that we did this platform this year that’s really regressive in a lot of ways,” said journalist and former Rand Paul staffer Elise Jordan during an RNC panel discussion.
“It’s regressive on LGBT rights, which is something that millennials really care about, the language on women wasn’t softer,” she added. “We really just haven’t made progress, and I would say we’ve been backsliding…the discussion surrounding a lot of these issues really is repulsive to a lot of young voters.”
Jordan argued that Trump’s decision to bring on Indiana Governor Mike Pence as his running mate further alienates young women.
Pence signed the Religious Freedom Restoration Act in Indiana last year, which many LGBT activists argued would essentially made it legal for businesses and religious institutions to discriminate against them. Pence is also known for supporting restrictions on abortion and efforts to defund Planned Parenthood.
“[Pence] is not a youth-friendly choice and Donald Trump must win essentially every single white voter,” Jordan said. “There are a lot of obstacles on the path.”
Leah LeVell, an African American college student and advisor for the National Diversity Coalition for Trump, predicted an increase in youth support for Trump after the convention.
She encouraged young women, particularly college students, to listen to his policies of “bringing jobs back to America.”
“People are concerned about jobs, about student loans, and the safety of our country,” she said. “I feel like those issues are just as important to millennial women as they are to all Americans. Once we get past all the liberal media and get to the issues, people will see that Trump is for millennial women, and everybody.”
On the upside for Trump, although his unfavorable numbers with 18- to 29-year-olds have held steady, Clinton’s numbers are dropping.
Clinton holds a “significant but diminishing lead” over Trump, according to Harvard Institute of Politics polling director John Della Volpe. In April, she was up by 36 points with young voters; today she’s up by 26.
Della Volpe also noted that Clinton and Trump are equally unfavorable among young, white women. They each receive just 22 percent support from the demographic.
Many young women are scared by both of their options.
