Primary candidates make bid for youth vote

by Anjli Raval | January 23rd, 2008

Presidential candidates are reaching out to young voters

All candidates taking part in the US Primaries are relying on the youth wings of their parties to entice young people aged 18-29 to vote. The age bracket will make up 25% of the US electorate in 2008.

In the past the College Democrats of America (CDA), the official student outreach arm of the Democratic Party has had great success. It was due partly to the hard work of College Democrat’s activists based on campuses all over America that John Kerry won a landmark 54% of the youth vote in 2004.

Like the College Democrats there are currently over 250,000 College Republicans around the country who come together to help elect candidates, support the Republican agenda and are the grassroots branch of the Republican Party.Campaigns in this nomination race have not only tried to make the most of these organisations, theyhave taken to using new media technology. Candidates have campaigned heavily through their own websites as well as through blogs, videos and podcasts on websites such as Facebook, MySpace and YouTube.

No contender seems to have the same appeal to young activists as Barrack Obama. His charm and rhetoric, combined with his youth-orientated campaign, drew a record number of voters under the age of 25 to the Iowa caucuses on Monday January 14; it was these supporters that gave him most of his margin of victory. Obama finished roughly 20,000 votes ahead of former Senator John Edwards and Senator Hillary Clinton.

According to Time magazine the turnout at these caususes among the youngest tier of the electorate had more than doubled from 2004, when Democrat Howard Dean’s intense campaign on college campuses produced far more modest results. Whilst the overall turnout for the Democratic Party jumped 90%, the number of young Democrats participating also soared by 135%.

According to the CNN entrance poll it was the youth vote that pushed not only Obama but Mike Huckabee to the top in Iowa, with the latter securing 40% of this category of vote. Both candidates are known for appealing to young voters, having succeeded with promises of new beginnings. Even Hillary Clinton has taken a page out of Obama’s policy book, continuing a belated chase after the youth vote, by embracing the internet and by promising more government transparency.

More young Americans are doing their part by registering to vote, paying more attention to issues and party politics. Candidates have realised that in order to succeed it is most definitely a time for political leaders to reach out to younger Americans and run campaigns that address their concerns.