As the GOP presidential primary winds down and the focus shifts to making Barack Obama a one-term president, all eyes will be on the Republican National Committee, the only body able to work directly with the presidential nominee.
In 2010 the Republican National Committee’s political department, headed up by Gentry Collins, helped the GOP win a record number of House seats. The RNC was able to nearly triple the number of people volunteering at the committee’s headquarters from 2008, the majority of which were young professionals. Now, under the direction of chair Reince Priebus and political director Rick Wiley, the RNC is looking to build on it’s past success and generate a national strategy for engaging young voters.
One of Obama’s main strengths is his fanatical support amongst younger voters. Going into the 2008 elections, he enjoyed an amazing 75 percent approval rating among 19-29 year olds, which stayed above 60 percent throughout most of 2009.
Today, it’s dropped below 50 percent, which is much more in line with national averages. Much of this drop can be attributed to the economic slump. College students who were overwhelmingly in favor of the Democrats in 2008, have graduated and found themselves saddled with loans and unable to find jobs. Unemployment for them continues to trend well above the national average.
This immense gap in enthusiasm among young people is a huge advantage for Republicans, who see tremendous potential going forward. As a ting block, young people aren’t the most reliable voters, but they do provide enthusiastic support for their candidate of choice and their youthful energy makes them some of the best volunteers.
While the RNC is unable to deal directly with the College Republican National Committee because of campaign finance laws, when the RNC Operations team goes to a city to set up, the first group they contact is the local College Republican chapter. The RNC is well aware that CR’s are generally the most motivated volunteers and are happy to spend an evening making phone calls or stuffing envelopes if you feed them pizza.
Through this method, the RNC has been closing the voter registration gap in many states, and they see college-aged activists as a key to this mission.
Their main target is, without a doubt, the Battleground States. The RNC has identified several states that are actively in play for the upcoming presidential election. Even small changes in the leaning of youth voters, who went for Obama almost two to one in 2008, could have far-reaching effects for the GOP on Election Day.
To best leverage the enthusiasm of younger activists, the Committee is setting up an Online Victory Center as a parallel to their existing brick and mortar Victory Centers, Wiley told Red Alert Politics.
The RNC’s theory is that manpower need no longer be confined to a specific geographic location. This theory was part of the reason the RNC opted not to do its famed 72-hour deployments in 2010 under then-political director Gentry Collins in favor of focusing on phone banks. The strategy clearly worked.
Wiley said the RNC would work with volunteers from safe states to get out the vote in states that are in play. He hopes the strategy will increase the effectiveness of the RNC’s ground game. The RNC also hopes to make use of the technical skills of the new generation of activists who are much more at home on Twitter and Facebook, he said.
The RNC plans to roll out the Online Victory Center site soon. Of course, Red Alert Politics will be the first to let you know when it does.
Red Alert’s Editor, Francesca Chambers, a former RNC political department staffer also contributed to this report.
