Campaign for President Young Voters: Lessons
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forum transcript 2 0 05 CAMPAIGN FOR PRESIDENT 2004 YOUNG VOTERS: LESSONS LEARNED APRIL/ 2005 NATIONAL CAMPAIGN FOR POLITICAL AND CIVIC ENGAGEMENT elective politics careers in public service civic education www.iop.harvard.edu Campaign for President 2004 Young Voters: Lessons Learned 1 2005 Introduction / 2 Participants Alexandra Acker, Democratic GAIN Background / 2 Carrie Andersen, Harvard ’08 Kristin Blagg, Harvard ’08 Young People and Political Melanie Campbell, National Coalition on Participation: A Brief Profile Black Civic Participation Communicating with Young Voters Gary Davis, World Wrestling Entertainment Meighan Davis, AFL-CIO Organizing Institute The Mobilization of Young Voters John Della Volpe, Schneiders / Della Volpe / Schulman The Role of Debates Ben Ferguson, Host, The Ben Ferguson Show The Role of the Internet Jane Fleming, Young Democrats of America Ron Fournier, The Associated Press Moving Forward Ryan Friedrichs, Skyline Public Works Ivan Frishberg, Grassroots Campaigns, Inc. Discussion / 5 Jehmu Greene, Rock the Vote Introduction by Philip Sharp, Eric Hoplin, College Republican National Committee Director, Institute of Politics, David King, Institute of Politics Kennedy School of Government Jeffrey Levine, Rutgers University, Eagleton Institute Data / 8 Alexis McGill, Citizen Change Cathy McLaughlin, Institute of Politics, Kennedy School Non-Partisan Turnout Efforts / 24 of Government, Harvard University Partisan Turnout Efforts / 37 Tom McSorley, Harvard University ’06 David Nickerson, Notre Dame Jennifer Phillips, Institute of Politics, Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University April Rapp, Rutgers University, Eagleton Institute Jordan Sekulow, Ralph Reed for Lt. Governor, Georgia Philip Sharp, Director, Institute of Politics, Kennedy School of Government Susan Sherr, Rutgers University, Eagleton Institute Rebecca Sinderbrand, Newsweek Heather Smith, New Voters Project Kate Snow, ABC News, “Good Morning America, Weekend Edition” Elise Stefanik, Harvard University ’06 Jaime Uzeta, MTV: Music Television Tobi Walker, The Pew Charitable Trusts Hugh Weber, Young Voters Strategies Project Paloma Zapeda, Harvard University ’06 NATIONAL CAMPAIGN FOR POLITICAL AND CIVIC ENGAGEMENT elective politics careers in public service civic education www.iop.harvard.edu Campaign for President 2004 Young Voters: Lessons Learned 2 2005 Introduction Please note that continued polling has shown much of this information to be true, even as 2005 comes to a The Institute of Politics was established in 1966 as close. Despite the huge turnout for the 2004 elections, a living memorial to President John F. Kennedy. The a creeping cynicism about politics can again be found Institute’s dual mission is to inspire young people to among young people. lives in politics and public service and to bridge the worlds of academia and practical politics. In 2003, the As we approach the 2006 midterm elections, good Institute established the National Campaign for Political information about what was done in 2004 will help us and Civic Engagement. The mission of the National frame the candidates’ message and campaign efforts, Campaign is to encourage students to become more recognize logistical barriers and overcome attitudinal politically and civically engaged in their communities skepticism to continue the upward trend of young voters. and their country. The National Campaign focuses on If you have any questions about this conference or the three key areas of interest: elective politics, civic educa- National Campaign for Political and Civic Engagement, tion, and careers in public service. please visit our website at www.iop.harvard.edu or contact Jennifer Phillips, Director of National Programs Background at (617) 496-5306 or [email protected]. In the spring of 2005, the Institute invited leaders in the Young People and Political Participation: national efforts to turnout young voters for the 2004 A Brief Profile presidential election. It is estimated that over $70 million was spent to bring young voters to the polls; There are approximately thirty million young people and the efforts succeeded. The Campaign for President between the ages of 18 and 25. They are a racially and 2004 / Young Voters: Lessons Learned conference ethnically diverse group that is waiting longer to marry brought together the people who led those efforts. and is more likely to attend college than earlier genera- tions, although there continues to be racial disparity in More than 20 million people between the ages of 18 regard to the level of education received. and 29 voted in the 2004 election. As noted in the conference, there were more votes cast by people under Young people who attend college are more than twice the age of 30 than by those coveted voters over the age as likely to vote as their peers who do not attend. of 65. Unfortunately the youth vote was sorely misun- Young people overall indicate a lack of interest in derstood on election night, hen there was widely- politics as well as a distrust of institutions and other publicized information that young people did not turn people. Young people who are in college are more likely out to vote. In fact, they did turn out to vote in record to believe that politics addresses their needs than those numbers. The controversy about turnout numbers is who are not in school. Women between the ages of 18 discussed in the conference as are many other topics and 24 are more likely to vote than men and the voter from traditional grassroots efforts to innovative technol- turnout rates among African-American women in that ogy, the value of partisan versus non-partisan efforts, as age group have recently increased, despite the genera- well as the successes and failures in the 2004 election. tional decline. Young people whose parents vote are also more likely to vote than those who come from The Campaign for President 2004 / Young Voters: non-voting households. The good news is that voting is Lessons Learned conference followed up on a habit forming. Once a young person votes for the first researchers’ meeting prior to the 2004 election. Well time, they are likely to continue to do so. before the results of the 2004 election, researchers were hard at work defining what young, potential Despite the decline in voter turnout*, young people are voters thought of politics. Their research and conclu- volunteering in their communities in significant num- sions provides an extremely useful background and bers, often because they have been invited to do so by a context to the actions and outcome of the 2004 elec- peer. Some suggest that the gap between volunteerism tion. Because of their insights, we have included a and political participation can in part be attributed to summary of their discussion in the following few pages. *Until 2004. NATIONAL CAMPAIGN FOR POLITICAL AND CIVIC ENGAGEMENT elective politics careers in public service civic education www.iop.harvard.edu Campaign for President 2004 Young Voters: Lessons Learned 3 2005 young people’s inability to connect the community know very little about what works with young people and service that they perform with the role that public tend to apply the same tactics that they use with older policy could play in creating a more long term solution voter with the hope that it will work. to the issue being addressed. However, Dr. David So, what is it that young people are looking for in a Campbell argues that the presumption that young candidate? To begin with, they are more concerned with people are making a clear choice between service and values than with issues. Young people want to know politics is not true. In spite of the discrepancy between what makes a candidate tick. They want candidates to political participation and community service, those be willing to expose their personal inadequacies — to be who are most likely to volunteer are also those who are authentic. Young people are turned off by partisanship the most likely to participate in the political process. and negative campaigning. Candidates that appear to While it is true that some young people perform com- be cooperative are likely to do better with young people. munity service because they are required to do so by Young people want to hear about broad goals as opposed their high schools and colleges, many young people see to specific plans for how the goals are going to be service as a necessary part of being a good citizen. In achieved. They are distrustful of politicians who overstate addition, young people believe that service will have their capacity to generate change. Young people like an impact on issues that are important to them, while candidates who can say “I don’t know.” politics will not. While many service learning programs When candidates reach out to young people, they aim to help young people to make the connection should be aware that young people tend to feel anxious between service and public policy, community service that they do not know enough to participate effectively. programs in general are strongly apolitical, in part They are bewildered by all of the information that is because they are constrained by their funding sources. available to them; and concerned that they will not be The fact that so many young people are willing to able to understand issues as well as older, more experi- dedicate their time to community service should be enced voters. Candidates should not make them feel viewed optimistically. Young people do not need to be guilty for not participating, but instead encourage them compelled to see that there are issues to be addressed. to recognize the value of their personal involvement. Instead, they must be helped to see how political If given the opportunity to engage with a large group participation is an effective tool for achieving the of young people, candidates should avoid speaking at change they want to see. Political parties and individual young people, but instead should engage them in a candidates could benefit from making the investment dialogue – asking what they think and believe about in determining the best way to bridge this gap.