Many Republicans are celebrating that they have a nominee, but Donald Trump has about as much chance of winning the presidency as Gov. Jim Gilmore did of winning the GOP nomination — unless Trump fixes his (extremely) high negative ratings with millennials.
His latest national poll numbers put his disapproval ratings in this groups higher than 70 percent. One poll even had his millennial unfavorable numbers at 80 percent. Numerous polls have shown Hillary Clinton beating Trump among young voters by historic margins. That’s the bad news.
The good news is that Clinton has the worst favorability ratings among young voters of any modern Democratic presidential candidate. So, Trump has an opportunity, but he needs to change his image with millennials, fast.
Some may reject that it’s possible. No, it probably isn’t possible for Trump to win a majority of young voters, but he could foreseeably win enough to stay competitive in swing states — where the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE) predicted millennials will have the greatest impact.
With both major candidates having such awful numbers, it’s likely turnout will be low among a demographic that historically already has low turnout. This low turnout gives him a little easier task.
Here are some suggestions for him to start.
Roll out a bold plan to tackle student loan debt and college affordability. Trump is running on easily understandable phrases like “build the wall” or “bring jobs back to America,” but he doesn’t have a catch phrase (much less a plan) to tackle this pivotal millennial issue. Here’s a start for him: “Make College Affordable Again.”
This couldn’t fit Trump’s mantra any better. Americans remember a time when you could actually work your way through college without racking up enough debt to buy a sports car.
Trump can easily lay blame on the Obama administration for the recent increase in college costs. Since President Obama nationalized the student loan system in 2010, tuition and student loan debt has skyrocketed. And even before that, liberal federal aid policies have been driving up tuition three times faster than inflation for decades.
To lower costs and give millennials better opportunities, Trump can roll out a plan to make colleges partially responsible for student loan defaults, offer students financial loan incentives to attend cheaper colleges and to major in fields America’s economy needs, stop granting federal aid to colleges raising tuition dramatically more than inflation and tie student loan repayment to income.
These solutions are just a handful of government reforms (there are many others) that could bolster his youth appeal.
Start an Obama-style celebrity tour on college campuses. Trump has the support of many pop culture icons, and he should use them to normalize his image on campuses. Imagine having a campaign tour with Miss USA contestant winners, Kid Rock, Dan Blizerian, Tila Tequila, Jon Voight, Lou Holtz, Mike Ditka and Tom Brady.
The more celebrities and cultural icons that millennials like who stand up for Trump, the less likely they are to believe Clinton’s attacks that he is a racist and a sexist.
