‘Young Republicans might not be marching in the streets, but they are mobilizing:’ Gen Z
The 24-year-old Pennsylvanian — who serves as the communications director for the American Conservation Coalition, a conservative environmental group — often gets pushback from both Democrats and Republicans who say her beliefs are contradictory.
“At this point in my life, I kind of laugh off criticism like that,” Matthews told CNN, adding that she received similar feedback in college for being young and conservative, as if the two are mutually exclusive.
“Caring about climate change and being conservative and believing in small government are compatible,” she said.
Matthews is representative of the young conservatives who have come of age in a time marked by one crisis after another — from 9/11 to the 2008 financial collapse, school shootings, climate change and Covid-19.
“Young Americans are being left behind in Biden’s America — we’re facing skyrocketing prices, Biden’s gas hike, and we’ve lost precious time in the classroom that we can’t get back. Meanwhile, states with Republican leadership have led the way in economic recovery and getting students back in school and young Americans back to work,” RNC Deputy Press Secretary Will O’Grady told CNN in a statement. “The RNC has been on the ground since last cycle, engaging and recruiting our next generation of conservative voters who value freedom, opportunity, and love for our country.”
The RNC said that ahead of 2022, it continues to build out its network with young Americans and is recruiting campus team leaders as part of its Campus Team Leader Initiative, a youth engagement program which started as part of the Trump Victory Fund.
One of the largest groups of young Republicans, the College Republicans organization, told CNN it has beefed up its “volunteer strike force” which, ahead of the midterms, will focus on making phone calls and knocking on doors for GOP candidates.
“On the right, we’re really motivated right now because we’re fed up and want change,” Courtney Britt, the 25-year-old chairman of College Republicans, told CNN. “The youth vote in the middle is leaning our way right now because they see the things Democrats promised them are not coming to fruition. Maybe it’s time to give Republican policies a try.”
A chance for the GOP to win back moderate young Americans
Midterm elections usually don’t bode well for the party in power, and 2022 may be no different. It presents an opportunity for the Republican Party to win back some young conservative voters who either withheld from voting for president or voted for Joe Biden in 2020.
According to the poll, those younger than 45 make up 60% of the voters who say they cast a ballot for Biden in 2020 and don’t approve of the job he is doing. They’re only 33% of the voters who say they voted for Biden and approve of him.
“Leadership is up for grabs with young people. We’re just really hungry for leadership,” Matthews, who didn’t vote for president in 2020, told CNN.
Matthews said that despite not casting a ballot for president in 2020, her decision did “not necessarily,” mean she was “rejecting the conservative movement.”
“I think Republicans should be looking at 2022 as a huge opportunity to really appeal to the young disillusioned voter,” she said.
Like Matthews, Ally Chun, a 20-year-old Republican from New York, said, “I think that a lot of people are extremely dissatisfied with how things are going now.”
“How Biden has acted during the situation we’ve been in with Ukraine is a huge red flag,” Chun, who voted for Biden in 2020, said. “I think that’s really going to incentivize young Republicans and people who are moderate.”
In 2020 groups like College Republicans for Biden and Gen Z GOP formed, aiming to give center-right Gen Z voters a home amid a Republican administration and presidential reelection campaign they felt did not represent their beliefs or values.
For his part, Christopher Trzaska, who founded College Republicans for Biden in 2020 and is from New Jersey, said in 2021 he excitedly cast a ballot for Jack Ciattarelli, the then-Republican candidate for governor in his home state.
The 21-year-old, who told CNN he disaffiliated with the Republican Party after the insurrection at the Capitol on January 6, 2021 and re-reregistered as an independent, is eager to vote Republican again in 2022, he said, insisting he is still and always has been a conservative.
“You could drop me in the Bush administration, and I’d feel right at home,” Trzaska said, although he does understand Gen Z’s craving for something new and different. “Gen Z and many conservatives of my age are looking for someone to shake up the system, but not to burn the country down in the process.”
He noted that his vote for Biden wasn’t an endorsement for progressives like Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York or Ilhan Omar of Minnesota.
“Looking ahead to 2024, who knows? If it’s Trump, absolutely not,” Trzaska said. “But if it’s Ron DeSantis against Kamala Harris, that’s a decision to make, and that’s not a given one.”
“Trump is the leader of the Republican Party, I think that’s pretty evident in terms of just the mathematics of it,” Trzaska said, and while he opposes the former President, he said that “not every Trump endorsement is created equal,” adding that he could back a Trump-endorsed candidate, depending on who that candidate is.
The key issues for young Republicans: Gas prices, grocery prices, and foreign policy
According to Britt, who listed high gas and grocery prices as issues for young Americans, College Republicans are “not as different from the general population” when it comes to the issues they care about most this election cycle.
“We definitely hear from a number of people especially with inflation these days, complaining about gas prices and groceries and other day to day things that affect them,” Ebo Entsuah, a city councilman in Clermont, Florida, said.
Despite his position as a nonpartisan elected official, Entsuah, who is 28 years old, leans to the right.
Entsuah said he’s heard from many of his peers, even those who lean further to the left who feel, “fed up and sick of the way the current administration has been going about its work and having nothing to show for it.”
“In years past you’ve seen younger voters be focused on issues such as climate change or things like that, and they still are, but the turnaround if you will… you have all of these generations focused on the same thing is pretty incredible,” D’Anna said.
“Despite these people being younger, high gas prices are hitting them. They’re seeing the cost of inflation as well. So it’s a lot about the economics and why we need fiscal conservative policies in the cycle that we’re in right now,” he said.
Read More: ‘Young Republicans might not be marching in the streets, but they are mobilizing:’ Gen Z