McCain Courts Young Republicans

Gary Bauer did it Thursday night. Orrin Hatch did, too. George W. Bush made sure he did it once.

But it was John McCain who made it real.

In a debate notable for its in-depth examinations of Social Security policy and the morality of the free market, nearly all of the Republican candidates made direct pleas to younger voters.

Though the idea of middle-aged men appealing to the youth of America has proved piquant to late teen and twenty-somethings, the message of Sen. McCain (R-Ariz.) appears to resonate unusually well.

Part of it is surely style--his boyish smile and ham-it-up personality and dirty sense of humor--but the brunt of McCain's appeal seems to be his message.

When pollsters ask members of so-called "Generation X" what they most want from a president, they invariably answer, "a reformer."

The centerpiece of McCain's platform is campaign finance reform.

He wants to ban soft money contributions, which, he says, grant special interests the power to bankroll political parties and their agendas. Though critics counter that soft money donations are a form of protected political speech, McCain sees them as antithetical to democracy.

The senator from Arizona chains his argument to the spirit of youth.

He argues that young voters are politically disenfranchised from the process because moneyed interests have too much say. This disengagement from the political process fosters civic disengagement as well because, in McCain's view, younger voters don't feel the government is responsive to them at all.

For Jonathan S. Freimann, 23, a student at the Harvard Law School, McCain's views are welcoming.

"John McCain is someone that young Americans really can trust, can trust to be a straight-shooter, and can trust to tell it like it is, and we haven't seen that in a really long time," he says.

Candidates who successfully court the youth vote said that achievement, and not platitudes, helps them to connect.

"To appeal to the youth vote you have to convince them you're willing to change the way government works," said Senator Fred Thompson (R--Tenn) who, in his 1994 run for the Senate, saw young voters turn in out in droves to support his candidacy.

"John McCain is one of the few people who walks the walk," he said.

Thrice during last Thursday's debate did McCain make unsolicited pleas for the hearts of younger voters.

"We're going to have young men and women involved again in the political process instead of become cynical and alienated, and I believe that I can motivate them to do so," he said early on.

Then, later, he expanded on this view.

"Young Americas are cynical. I want to head the closing of the breach between the government and the people. The young people feel that we do not represent them. I want to restore faith in government," he said.

Republicans have always had a tough time talking to younger voters, and they know this is a problem.

Federal voting statistics show that young people are consistently the most-underrepresented age demographic at the polls.

In 1996, only 16 percent of 18- to 20-year-olds voted. That's compared with more than 59 percent of voters aged 45 to 59.

The 84 percent who don't vote are a prized constituency, often pitched to in larger proportion than their voting power may warrant.

Particularly troubling for Republicans is the Democrats' tendency to better attract the youth vote, as younger people tend to be more liberal.

But there are notable exceptions.

Young Republican voters were out in force last Thursday, sharing in a semi-spontaneous cheering festival for their candidates in the large parking lot behind WMUR-TV in Manchester.

To be sure, many were bused in from Massachusetts. The Steve Forbes campaign paid for the bright orange shirts won by dozens of young partisans. McCain and Bush threw pizza parties for their young supporters.

McCain's campaign paid for the buses that brought students up to the debate, though campaign workers asked for a "donation" to help defray the cost of the ride.

Clearly, candidates are eager to court youth voters, and even more important, eager to appear popular with a younger crowd. Candidates who have young and vigorous supporters may appear young and vigorous themselves.

Thursday night, Bush's supporters blasted rock music, and Forbes's supporters formed an impromptu mosh pit in front of their chartered bus.

Sprinkled through the crowd were about 40-50 undecided first-time Republican voters. Some came because their curious. Others came with family and friends.

Chris Dawes, 17, attends a high school not far from Manchester. He turns 18 in a few weeks.

He thinks he'll give his first vote to Hatch, the U.S. senator from Utah.

"I like his moral stands, his views on constitutional amendments, and his policies on foreign areas," Dawes says, resting a Hatch sign on his shoulder.

Crystal Montaine, a first-time voter from Kingswood College in New Hampshire, held a "McCain 2000" sign with a group of friends.

"He's fair and honest and he has a lot of courage," she says, as a crowd of people chanted the candidate's name behind her. "He'll do a lot for our country."

Ballot-casters like Montaine and Dawes are important in New Hampshire because in primary states where two candidates vie for the support of the state party organization, new electors can cast the deciding votes.

Campaigns are using the internet to make their pitches. McCain has his own "McCain U" site, www.mccaininteractive.com. Students can join McCain groups at their own colleges and receive e-mail messages tailored to their concerns. Texas Gov. George W. Bush's campaign employs staffers full-time to recruit younger voters.

Still, the most important pitch is the direct appeal, which McCain alone seems to have mastered.

When the other candidates arrived for the debate Thursday night, they stopped to speak to a throng of television cameras before chatting with supporters.

McCain, seconds after getting off his bus, made a bee-line to a crowd of young boosters.

According to Freimann, such small gestures make a difference.

Harvard students watching last Thursday's debate at the IOP told a pollster they were most impressed by McCain, though they also gave a thumbs-up to Alan L. Keyes '72 and Bush.

Still, most national polls show that Bush has a healthy lead over McCain in almost every state--a disparity that is not ignored by McCain's campaign.

"On some level, McCain really speaks to and about youth," says Travis K. Larson, a McCain spokesperson.