The Race for the Youth

Since the Democratic primaries, Barack Obama has enjoyed unprecedented levels of youth support and involvement. On the other hand, John McCain, who is a self-professed computer illiterate, has had considerable trouble connecting with this millennial generation. The Obama campaign has clearly developed a connection with this generation in the areas of our political landscape where his opponent has been unable. By communicating his transformational, bipartisan message through the mediums most familiar to the youth, Obama has been able to trump McCain in effectiveness of their respective youth operations.

Barack Obama’s campaign has been serious about youth outreach since very early on in the primaries when they hired Facebook’s co-founder, Chris Hughes, to oversee their social networking. This popular site for the youth gave the Obama campaign the ability to network thousands of younger voters together with the ability to contact them all at once in a moment’s time. While the McCain campaign has had a presence on social networking sites like Facebook and Myspace as well, it has been a considerably more difficult sell to younger voters. McCain, who proclaimed his inability to use a computer, clearly would have trouble convincing young voters of his campaign message through this medium. With the medium significantly affecting the message in this case, Obama’s relative technological savvy, has bolstered his message. It is increasingly difficult for young voters to get past the fact that McCain himself cannot even connect with them on the same technological level, which muddles the actual message with concerns of McCain’s being out-of-touch.

Barack Obama has even ventured into racially specific social networking sites to engage African, Asian, and Latino American voters. By making use of the sites blackplanet.com, migente.com, and asianave.com, Obama has used social networking to engage minority, younger voters. For Obama, a candidate who has made use of his biracial background, this outreach to specific youth, ethnic coalitions is to be expected. The real concern with putting so much confidence in social networking is whether or not it is actually the most effective mode of message communication.

According to Heather Smith of Young Voter Strategies, a GWU based research and strategy organization, Facebook and Myspace have not been as effective as their popularity may recommend. While the technology is certainly useful for communicating with the youth, the most effective way to target youth voters is still personal contact. While this notion would seem to put Obama and McCain back on an equal playing field, one must remember the valuable communicatory power of social networking sites. Even though they may not boast the personal potency of canvassing or face-to-face contact, they do allow candidates to put together a vast network of youth who can carry out the more personal tactics.

Barack Obama and his campaign obviously saw the potential to tap into this millennial voting bloc, which has been increasing in turnout by the millions. In 2004, the country saw an increase of 5 million in youth turnout of this generation and then another 2 million in the 2006-midterm elections. Both Obama and McCain have hired youth vote directors, Leigh Arsenault and Joe Pounder respectively. While the Obama campaign likes to boast about its 700 nationwide Youth for Obama chapters, and the McCain likes to note their youth chairs in all fifty states, the main concern will remain to be the translation of these tactics into material results.

Furthermore, the Obama campaign has been relentless in its attempts to reach young voters even closer to home than with social networking sites. Instead of the computers, the campaign is now targeting their pockets. Through the use of text messaging, the Obama campaign has built a large database of young voter’s cell phone numbers. With this technology being employed mostly by young voters, it gives the Obama campaign a clear entrance into the young voter’s mind. This strategy has been unmatched and untouched by the McCain campaign. This certainly addresses the concern of translating support into material results on election day because instead of having to check the computer, which students do not always have access to, a get out of the vote message can be sent directly to their phones. Also, by visiting a far greater amount of college campuses than McCain, he has been able to put together a large database of young volunteers, those who can hopefully turn out their friends on Election Day.

Tony Cani, the political director of the Young Democrats of America, claims that the most effective way to translate support into votes is by connecting with the youth where they live and hang out. On this note, the Obama campaign has made a concentrated effort to visit college campuses across the country. Between February and July alone, Barack Obama held rallies at 31 campuses to John McCain’s mere 3. Although these visits were during the primary season, it is clear which candidate has systematically created a support system amongst younger voters, specifically those in college. Closer to the election, though, both campaigns have been open to the inclusion of younger voters in their campaigns. Similarly, both campaigns have enabled their websites to allow for user generated content, like videos, with policy ideas. The McCain campaign created Generation08, or McCainSpace, while the Obama website encourages younger voters on their Students for Obama page to “tell us your policy ideas.” The similarity of their general strategies towards the youth begs the question of why there is such a large gap of youth support favoring Obama over McCain.

Some may say that the gap is attributable to McCain’s comparable neglect for college-aged students. His website has a coalition for younger voters named “Future Leaders for McCain.” The range of this group is 25 to 40 year olds. Contrarily, Obama’s Students for Barack Obama has a range that expands from high school students to graduate students. In addition, he makes up for the young voters that are older than student age with his Generation Obama group, a coalition devoted to a grassroots network of support led by all voters under 40 for his candidacy. As such, it is clear that McCain has had a much less concentrated effort to engage college students than his opponent, Barack Obama.

A more substantive reason does exist, though, for this overwhelming support of Obama over McCain. On issues pertinent to younger voters, like the War in Iraq and college affordability, Obama’s message has resonated more than McCain’s. He has spoken out against the War and in favor of helping college students pay for their education in return for service to the community. These issues and Obama’s stance, regardless of the generally similarity youth outreach strategies, has most likely led to the large gap between the two in youth support.

Whether this gap remains, though, is in large part hinging on the effectiveness of each respective operation. It seems that Obama’s message of bipartisanship and unity, post-racial politics, and change has been most effective in connecting with the millennial generation. A generation that has embraced the idea of diversity, young voters seem to be more tolerant than any generation of the potential to have an African American as president. The historic nature of Obama’s campaign, and his ability to deracialize in favor of universal popularity, has also played a major role in his pre-election support levels amongst young voters.

While it seems as if Obama should garner a significantly greater amount of youth voters, the key is getting these traditionally apathetic voters out to the polls. In such a close race, Obama knows how crucial this actually as. Consider his recent speech in the battleground state of Missouri. He appealed to the youth by urging them to realize that “it is gonna get nasty” in the days before the election. By doing this, he preempting the potential negative discourse that could demobilize the youth, instead letting them know that it is to be expected. He ended this appeal by directly imploring “every single young person” there to grab five friends and go to the polls because their “future depend[ed] on it.” A calculated similarity to the extreme networking focused on throughout his campaign, Obama knows that in order to win his grassroots efforts must carry him across the finish line, not just drop him off before it.

For Further Reading:

http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/10/31/last.weekend/

http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1639707,00.html

http://go.barackobama.com/page/content/gohomepage

http://futureleaders.johnmccain.com/FutureLeaders.htm

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/08/08/opinion/main4333168.shtml

http://www.nysun.com/national/the-youth-vote-attracts-both-campaigns/85758/

http://community.mccainspace.com/kickapps/_/club/58707/41158.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/08/us/politics/08youth.html

http://students.barackobama.com/page/content/sfbohome