I think we can all agree that the Republican Party needs to do a better job “reaching out” to young voters. I think we’ve all seen the stats, all bemoaned the party’s fate if it continues to hemorrhage under-30s, and all talked about that beautiful–if unclear–future time in which hordes of 18-year-olds will gleefully check off “R” for their party affiliation.

But we’re a long way from there, and we’re a longer way in figuring out how to get there. So I’d like to use this post as a springboard for discussion, if y’all will be so kind as to oblige me. I think the goal of youth voter outreach is two-fold: (1) to win young voters, uh, votes and (2) to recruit young voters as donors and volunteers.

Present Realities

• General perception. The Republican Party is perceived, particularly by young voters, as overwhelmingly old, white, racist, sexist, classist, and many other bad “-ists.” To further this perception, in the race for the RNC chairmanship there’s one candidate who unapologetically distributed a song called “Barack the Magic Negro” and another who was a member of a whites-only country club for more than a decade. Fantastic.

• Party communication. I’ve been on the RNC email list for many moons now. The last three emails I’ve received–going back to November–have encouraged me, from most to least recent, to donate money to thank George Bush; to donate money since Saxby won in Georgia; and to donate money so Republicans could “finish strong ” in Congressional races. Uninspiring to say the least, and wildly useless when it comes to connecting with college students. We don’t have money. When we do, it tends to disappear quickly.

• Online presence. My instinctive response to new information is to Google it. Googling “Republican Durham NC” , where I currently live, gets me to the Durham County GOP. There I can read a feed from the official RNC blog and donate money. Googling “Republican Albany NY”, where I went to high school, gets me to the Albany County GOP, where I can read no blog, but donate money–although I’m warned I can’t donate more than $76,500 in a year. How did they know student loans and stockpiles of Ramen were really a front for massive amounts of disposal income?

Ideas for the Future

• Micro-target email lists to communicate specifically with young voters. It’s easy, and there’s no excuse to do otherwise. We give less money than the average voter, but we have the ability to give more time. (Seriously, we’d love a principled reason to skip that boring Econ lecture.)

• Spend more time talking about ideas. We pride ourselves on being the problem-solving generation; we got sick of politics as usual before we, uh, really understood what was usual. The slim margin of us who cared about Barack Obama’s questionable associates were already going to vote Republican. So what about the rest of us, who want to know what will happen with Iraq, with health care, with Social Security, with our job prospects?

• Modernize and organize local and state parties. These groups head up work for boots on the ground. They’re likely our first (and, sometimes, only) connection with any party representatives. But the quality of these groups varies wildly, particularly when it comes to online presence. Turn-off. Major turn-off.

• Recruit younger candidates. See Rebuild the Party’s 40 under 40 strategy. It says it better than I can.

Last 5 posts by Abby Alger

• Helping the Right Online, One PDF at a Time - March 29th, 2009
• Kids These Days - March 17th, 2009
• In which I browse HR 1105, so you don't have to. - February 24th, 2009
• Re: Attacking Obama - February 5th, 2009
• Let’s Fix the System - December 28th, 2008