The GOP is now targeting young voters — by taking over “The Colbert Report,” “The Daily Show,” and MTV according to the new Republican National Committee’s Growth and Opportunity Project report released on Monday.
Sending Republican leaders to be interviewed on comedy and entertainment shows is just one of the strategies outlined in the new report to attract young voters to the Republican Party.
The report will be the GOP’s playbook to reach out to not only the youth demographic but to women, blacks, Hispanics, and Asian Americans as well.
“Young voters are increasingly rolling their eyes at what the party represents,” Sally Bradshaw, a political strategist said during a press conference at the National Press Club in Washington D.C. on Monday.
“When someone rolls their eyes at us, they’re not likely to open their ears to us,” argued Bradshaw who is one of the five leaders on the committee that created the report.
RNC Chairman Reince Priebus echoed Bradshaw’s comments during the National Press Club Speakers Breakfast directly following the press conference.
“Focus groups described our party as narrow-minded, out of touch, and quote ‘stuffy, old men’,” he said jokingly noting that he’s “only 41.”
But Preibus and the rest of the committee are seeking to change the youth’s negative reception of the Republican party through the strategies detailed in the report.
These strategies include “an aggressive marketing campaign to expand our footprint on college campuses,” particularly historical black colleges and universities and creating an “ongoing dialogue with the youth,” Priebus said.
Priebus also announced that the Republican Party will appoint a youth liaison to coordinate with College Republicans and teen age Republicans and will be releasing its data to campaigns and party organizations, so they can provide user-friendly apps to voters.
“Think of it like Apple and the App store,” Priebus explained.
The RNC chairman pointed to young rising stars in the GOP such as Florida Senator Marco Rubio, Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin and Governors Nikki Haley of South Carolina and Wisconsin’s Scott Walker as positive examples of Republican leaders.
“We’ve just done a real lousy job sometimes of bragging about the success we’ve had,” Priebus said. “When it comes youth, when it comes to diversity, we’ve made great strides.”
