As a 20 year old born in 1994, I personally lean towards the growing Libertarian wing within the GOP, and I also know several other people in my age group who are also leaning in that direction. On the other hand, I live in suburban Georgia, which is currently a GOP stronghold as is.
Despite living in Virginia, I'm the same age as you and I lean towards the same wing of the GOP. I also share the same experience with people in my age group. The friends that I have who are politically inclined--this also includes a few minorities--are drifting more and more towards voting for Rand Paul in 2016. Most of them--much like myself--supported Obama in 2008, and have felt betrayed by him and his abandonment of the principals that gave us so much hope five years ago.
Whilst some still support Obama, most of them were die-hard Democrats to begin with. For people born post-1993, Obama is the first President that our generation has "grown-up with," so to speak. We also grew up under Clinton and Bush II, but Clinton was out of office by the time we were out of the first grade. As for Bush II, our only real experience of him was the end of his second term, since I doubt most of us were studying/following politics to a serious degree during his first-term and the beginning of his second. We knew about 9/11, Afghanistan, Iraq, Katrina, etc, but they were just events to us. We knew we were at war and the alleged reasons as to why, but that was the extent of our knowledge.
In comparison, Obama took office whilst our generation started high school, so we lived through and experienced his administration whilst our interest in politics began. Hell, I would be willing to bet that Obama's 2008 campaign sparked the interest in politics that my generation currently has. He promoted himself as offering "Hope and Change," and we bought that. When he was sworn-in in 2009, we were elated that we were relieved of the Bush Years, and we were going to grow up under Barack Obama.
However, the next four years led some of us to explore other options in 2012. I remember going to a Ron Paul rally in 2012 in Northern Virginia, and I recall seeing tons of people around my age (I was 17 at the time). Well, perhaps not
exactly my age, but within the 17-21 age group. As the years progressed, I've seen more and more people around my age supporting Rand Paul. Perhaps some of this has to do with the disillusionment and sense of betrayal that a lot of people born post-1993 feel about Barack Obama. The NSA, the continued meddling in the Middle East, etc, have probably played a factor in this.
Another thing: I've found that a lot of people born post-1993 aren't necessarily loyal to one party in the way most of their elders are. I've seen tons of people say, when confronted with a choice between two candidates, say to vote for "the Democrat," or "the Republican." I don't find this mindset within my generation. They're more inclined to vote for a person who represents an idea, rather than a person who represents a political party. Another one of my friends--who is pretty far to the left--says that he'd consider voting for Rand Paul over Hillary Clinton, if only because of his foreign policy (and yes, his first choice would be Cory Booker and/or Elizabeth Warren). Perhaps this feeling is prevalent because they've felt the failure of both major parties before they could legally drink an alcoholic beverage.
Tl;dr summary: It's wrong to assume that Democrats have a stranglehold on the youth vote, and those who think Hillary is a shoe-in to be President of the United States are misguided. They're also misguided if they think a guy like Rand Paul--who is able to blur the lines between Red vs. Blue--won't be able to draw the youth vote over to the Libertarian wing of the Republican Party.
