Millennials Up For Grabs?

[The Mikado]

All the usual caveats aside (generation theory is in large part bunk, there are people of all ideologies in all age groups, etc.)

I think the GOP does in fact have a chance with those voters who are coming into political consciousness under Obama (say, those born in 1998 or more recently), but only if they actually attempt to appeal to those voters.  As long as the Republican Party comes off as (sorry, but I'm going to be blunt) a party of rustic white hillbillies, it simply doesn't have a lot to offer to the most diverse, least rural generation in US history.  The GOP is going to have to adapt to the 21st century in order to chase those voters, because at the moment the Republican Party seems to speak a different language.

The absurd and somewhat frightening success of Ron Paul amongst younger people is a sign that the right GOP can and does win over the young voter, and a savvier, less fringey version of Ron Paul (say, his son Rand) could actually prove a very compelling candidate for that younger crowd.  The question is, could Rand Paul do that while not losing the more traditional Republican vote to apathy?

[The Mikado]

I don't really consider people in the late 90's/early 00's to be millennials.

Yes, I've always seen the cutoff for the Millennial generation as born around 1995 or so.  Old enough to plausibly remember 9/11 might be another way of putting that.

[The Mikado]

The definition I always saw was something like 1982-1995.

[The Mikado]

We are rapidly hitting the point where millennials aren't going to be the "youth" generation in the election anymore. If youth is defined as 18-24, anyone born before 1992 won't be a youth voter in 2016...push it to 18-29 and 1987 becomes the line. There will be people born in 1996 who are voting, and people who were born in 1996 aren't millennials by any definition I've heard (usually something like born 1982-1995). The people on the 1982 side of that balance will be in their mid-30s.