Romney found to have over 40 percent of the youth vote

By Catholic Online (NEWS CONSORTIUM)
8/15/2012
Catholic Online (www.catholic.org)

Romney is only Republican in the primaries to score among 18-29 year olds

For some, it came as a surprise - but to others, the results were not surprising at all. According to a recent poll, Republican Presidential nominee Mitt Romney has won the support of over 40 percent of America's youth vote. These findings come as bad news for President Obama, a troubling sign for President Obama, who built his 2008 victory with the support of younger, idealistic voters.

Obama's promises for a better future for young Americans has grown red with rust with disillusionment and unemployment.

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LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - Pollster John Zogby of JZ Analytics says that Romney received 41 percent in his weekend poll of 1,117 likely voters, surpassing the 40 percent mark. Even more significantly, Romney is the only Republican of those who competed in the primaries to score highly among 18-29 year olds.

"This is the first time I am seeing Romney's numbers this high among 18-29 year olds," Zogby says. "This could be trouble for Obama who needs every young voter he can get."

It must be noted that many younger voters and students flooded into Ashland, Virginia, over the weekend to see Mitt Romney and running mate Rep. Paul Ryan.

Zogby has been closely following the youth vote this election. In 2008, 66 percent chose Obama over Sen. John McCain, which was the highest percentage for a Democrat in three decades. Obama's promises for a better future for young Americans, however, grew red with rust with disillusionment and unemployment.

Zogby defines these young voters as "CENGAs" for "college-educated, not going anywhere."

In the most recent poll, Obama received just 49 percent of the youth vote when pitted against Romney, who received 41 percent. In another question, the independent candidacy of Gary Johnson is included; Obama won 50 percent, Romney 38 percent and Johnson 5 percent.

Removing Johnson from the equation in the past has seen a surge in support for Obama, but the numbers for Romney--and undecideds have since increased.

Zogby speculates that Romney's selection of 42-year-old Rep. Paul Ryan helped turn younger voters to him. "It could be his youthfulness," Zogby said of Ryan. Younger voters are becoming libertarian, distrustful of current elected officials and worried that they are going to get stuck with the nation's looming fiscal bill.

"They want change," Zogby says.

� 2012, Catholic Online. Distributed by NEWS CONSORTIUM.

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Keywords: Young voters, Mitt Romney, Barack Obama, CENGAs

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1 - 2 of 2 Comments

Roane
10 months ago
Supporters of Romney getting excited over his 41% of the youth vote are really grasping for straws at this point. Yes Romney's numbers with young viters are a great improvement over McCain's, and yes scores of youth have been disapointed and disillusioned by the state of the Obama economy, but this article about yout voters ignores the big elephant in the room: The young voters who have LEFT the room and will not vote. Ever since the voting age decreased to 18, no campaign GOP or Democrat has sustained any youth excitement they stirred up the election before. Many young voters over 4 years become married voters, or parent voters, or graduated-now-need-job voters, or just plain old older voters. Needs and priorities tend to change over time.

And the excitement over Paul Ryan by the youth? It is great to see someone like him with his Catholic background, strong character, and bold ideas in the campaign and will certainly excite the young Republican base, but to the youth in general the appeal is overstated. Some see an advantage to him being young, but he really isn't young at 42 years old, just young-er. He's already married with children and quite accomplished at his job, which is more than you can say for most 20-somethings, so right there a connection is lost. And about him working tirelessly as a fiscal conservative and having bold financial plans exciting people? As you may well know, his budget plans have ruffelled the feathers of not just the Dems, but some of the elderly consituencies of some GOP congressmen. And if he ends up being Veep, his budget plan which he worked so hard on will most likely be tweaked by members of House leadership watering down the more controversial parts so as to not upset certain populations of their district. This crap happens all the time in Congress and Ryan will have very little say about it atop his VP perch. I honestly think that's what the Romney campaign may be going for on the first place. The Vice-Presidential stump is just that, a stump with little legislative or executive powers (have you ever seen a Vice-Presidential budget propsal?) He was nominated to generate excitement in the electorate in a way they got from Sarah Palin, but history shows that that excitement will be short lived. Was the youth electorate really that excited about the young VP Dan Qualye? How did having the young John Edwards anchoring Kerrey's failed campaign work out for him?

Maybe it's not too late for the Romney/Ryan ticket to get apathetic young people off the couch and genuinely excited about them. The hope/change thing ddin't really materialize, the economy still teters, many young people are unemployed or more likely under-employed as a result, and they are posting the highest numbers with the youth vote since forever...what could possibly stop the Romney youth train now?

Oh wait, Romey's still like double digit percentage points behind Obama...and those results are from "likely" voters...and the election is less than 3 months away...Keep fighting the good fight, I guess
Esther Marie Ventura Ferencz
10 months ago
Just AWESOME news from Zogby...........YOUTH for Romney...........indeed they want a JOB! God Guide and Bless ALL people of good will in this race,.

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