Former Virginia U.S. Senator George Allen addressed the Arlington/Falls Church Young Republicans Monday night, touting the importance of young voters in his race to recapture his former seat.
Although former Gov. and DNC chairman Tim Kaine currently leads Allen in support from Virginia’s younger demographics, Allen asserted that young Americans should overwhelmingly be supporting Republicans this election.
“College students don’t want to move back home after graduation,” Allen proclaimed to laughter from the audience. Allen argued that the historically high real unemployment rate under the Obama Administration disproportionately affects young people just entering the labor force.
Allen’s three-prong platform of economic growth, domestic energy production and reduction of Federal government overreach should play well overall in Virginia this fall, as the vast majority of voters in the Commonwealth are preoccupied with economic issues and gas prices.
After a string of strong Democratic elections performances in the Old Dominion, Virginia voters in 2009 dealt a sharp rebuke to the Obama Administration when Republicans swept the statewide elections by wide margins, elevating current Governor Bob McDonnell to office.
This year, Allen faces a tough race against former Kaine, whom Allen has referred to repeatedly as President Obama’s “hand-picked” Senate candidate.
Virginia is a crucial swing state in 2012 – Obama was the first Democrat to carry the state in a presidential election since 1964 – and it is a must win for Republicans who hope to retake the Senate and the White House. A Roanoke College poll shows presumptive GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney beating Obama in Virginia 46 to 40 percent and Allen beating Kaine 44 to 36 percent.
The Roanoke College poll shows Allen’s ahead. If he can harness the favorable response he received from young voters in Northern Virginia – an age group and geographic center that forms Kaine’s base – George Allen can return to the U.S. Senate chamber with a win this November.
