The oldest of the Millennial Generation turn 35 this year (if you use Howe and Strauss; classification). That is the age at which people start making inroads into high offices (governorships, US House and the US Senate). Millennial voters will start voting heavily when they start seeing their own generation challenging effectively the older politicians not attuned to Millennial sensibilities.
Much of economic and political life in America is ugly -- high debt from student loans, high real-estate costs, heavy reliance upon regressive taxation with loud proposals to make the tax system even more regressive, low pay, and limited opportunity. Add to this, a highly-secular generation hears much talk of religious bigotry on behalf of fundamentalist Christianity and against rational science, but with the legislative branch in the federal government and in most state legislatures under the effective control of corporate lobbyists. That is all a raw deal for most of the Millennial generation.
I'm guessing that the Millennial generation is disgusted with what it sees so far, and given a chance it will grease the skids for older politicians out of touch with this generation. Obama may not have been too bad... but the older liberals seem more intent on protecting high wages of skilled workers in unions while the Right stands for a "Christian and Corporate State" in which in return for harsh terms of insecure employment people get vague promises of Pie In the Sky When You Die. Millennial young adults are not particularly amoral, but they are unlikely to accept religion as a substitute for happiness in This World.
The rise of any generation into a significant role in political life typically comes as a wave election. To be sure, any Millennial pol will be unable to win any election solely on the strength of Millennial votes even if those are now the largest generation in the electorate. But they can run against politicians that others see as out of touch, sold out, or suspect in integrity or competence. The corporatist-fundamentalist waves of 2010 and 2014 have shown what they are, and reverse waves are about due.
It is still possible that a Boomer in his or her sixties can be elected president, but such a pol will need to appeal to Millennial sensibilities. Pie in the Sky in return for miserable, impoverished lives here on behalf or rapacious and selfish elites (Donald Trump is about as pure an expression of rapaciousness and selfishness as there can be) is not a fitting appeal for a generation that values egalitarian economics and secular thought. They are not anti-religious. I would guess that the Pope is better respected by young white Millennial Protestants than is the current President.
Why would a millennial care if some random 35 year old guy with no touch with the base gets a high position. It is pretty meaningless. Millennials are not homogeneous & this isn't like the emotive issue of the 1st Black president. Millennials are also divided among racial, ideological & various other factors.
What could serve as a rallying point if there is an inspiring candidate (Like Obama was in 2008) & if there are tangible benefits which they receive. Let's say college is made tuition free & they know that it could be taken away under a GOP presidency & Congress, they will turn out. Basically, politicians have to show that they can positively effect their lives & they will turn out, at least for self-interest.
The point. A politician isn't elected because he has a constituency of people his age -- but it helps, especially if he (which can include women, by the way -- just the linguistic convention) when that pol touches some strong concerns.
American political life is increasingly geriatric, as shown by the President. Yes, young people can vote for a politician who looks like death warmed over (FDR in 1944)... but when those politicians who look like death warmed over are seen as corrupt, extreme, or simply out-of-touch those pols tend to lose.
The Republican waves of 2010 and 2014 appealed to older voters, often reactionary in economics and in cultural values. Maybe 2016 was the last hurrah of the American (Boomer) Right nationwide.
Yes, the Right would love to get fresh blood into their cause, with younger pols convincing most people that the best way for most people to get improvements in their lives is to suffer for rapacious, cruel, elitist bosses, owners, and landlords for the indulgence of the economic elites so that those elites will decide to invest in new sweatshops that hire masses of workers who need to work two such jobs to survive, and build fresh slums overpriced from the start... and there are some Millennial adults who believe that. But most Millennial adults don't, and that will not work to get their vote any more than saying "I am a German-American" will sway the large number of Americans with German ancestry.
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