Can Millennials Save the Democratic Party?
Facing a bleak electoral landscape after 2016, the brightest spot for Democrats may be President Trump’s continued weakness with members of the Millennial generation—who are poised to surpass the more Republican-leaning baby boomers in 2020 as the largest generation of eligible voters.
Polls early in his presidency consistently show Trump facing lower job-approval ratings, and greater resistance to his key ideas, among Millennials than among any older generation. Those findings are fueling Democratic hopes that Trump’s agenda of bristling nationalism on issues like immigration will stamp the GOP as a party of racial exclusion, not only for the increasingly diverse Millennials, but for the first post-Millennials who will enter the electorate in 2020.
“This could be a generational opportunity for the Democrats to lock in several very key segments of voters for a long time to come, because this is Trump’s party and Republicans will have to live with the downside,” said Dan Pfeiffer, former White House counselor to Barack Obama. “If Trump’s standing stays where it is now, particularly among young people and non-white voters—he is not an anomaly, he is the Republican Party for years to come.”
But there’s no guarantee Democrats can reap big benefits from Millennial mistrust of Trump. The best evidence is that turnout among Millennials remained mediocre in 2016—and, based on historic patterns, could decline more substantially in the 2018 midterm election than among older voters. And while Trump faces grim numbers among Millennials overall, he has
