It is doubtful there will be very high levels of participation amongst young voters in the looming elections this year. Furthermore, no one should find this fact surprising. However, one group will.
The Democratic candidates.
This is not to say that gubernatorial candidate Pete Gosar has opinions on social and economic issues that youth voters, on the whole, agree with. Quite the opposite in fact. Gosar’s stance on Medicare expansion, equal marriage rights and education standards appeals to us greatly, for the most part.
The truth is, how well Gosar’s views line up with the youngest generation of voters’ own will be his undoing. They see the hopelessness of their own position reflected in the hopelessness of his campaign.
Now, allow me to clarify that rather dramatic statement.
Anyone who is a member of the 18-25 year age demographic, and either was born here or has lived here for an extended period of time, knows one thing to be abundantly clear.
Wyoming is Conservative, independent, God fearing and gun loving. Oh, and did I mention proud? Yep, that too. We are a state that is extremely proud of all those qualities.
I am not here to discuss the moral failings or virtues inherent in any of those mindsets, more so I wish to explain the way in which this fact dooms Democratic candidates in this state, at least as far as garnering the youth vote.
But first, let’s discuss the actual campaigns. Even without factoring in the youth population, this race was determined from the start. Mead, being both affiliated with the dominant party in the state and being the incumbent candidate, was going to win this race whether he even campaigned or not. On the other hand, in order for Pete Gosar to have a realistic chance of success this race, he should have begun planning and organizing a grassroots network at least a year ago.
According to Gosar’s Facebook campaign page, the former UW football player announced his intention to run on May 17 of this year. Two weeks before the filing deadline passed on formal bids to run.
None of this engenders an extremely large amount of confidence in Gosar’s campaign. At least not amongst the generation who has, their whole lives, been barraged with imagery and slogans declaring Wyoming to be the “Cowboy State,” a place not too inclined toward liberal tendencies.
Let me reiterate, I find Pete Gosar to be an extremely intelligent individual, who takes a strong stance on many of the issues I find to be important. However, I do not harbor any fantasies that he will actually win.
There is an inherent cynicism that exists within the mindset of young voters, which does not seem to appear in previous generations. Conversely, the Democratic Party has always comported itself as one of optimism, and more recently “Hope.” Too bad one of their key demographics is not filled with over generous amounts of hope and optimism.
To the generation of young voters in this state, it appears far more realistic to simply move out of Wyoming as soon as possible, rather than attempt to mobilize any sort of political shift in the state.
Exacerbating this mindset is the culture of “Wyoming pride” mentioned earlier. Youth voters are faced with an ever present and pervading sense that many people living here do not want to change their social and political views. The idea that federal regulations and involvement will ever be viewed positively in this state is laughable.
So why would youth voters try to fight for the liberalization of Wyoming?
Raised in an era of time where technology has created a social paradigm of instant connectivity and saliency of ideas, young voters simply do not have the same concept of the dichotomy between states’ rights and federal jurisdiction that previous generations display.
In fact, there are far too many real life issues that Millennials (18-30 year olds) must face in day to day life for them to be bothered by amorphous ideological battles. With high paying jobs growing scarcer while the cost of living rises, paying rent is generally the highest priority for the younger age demographic.
Not to say that young voters are incapable of caring about larger issues, they just need to know there is a candidate who is willing to put in as much work as is required to enact meaningful change in order to mobilize. Thus far, Gosar has not shown himself to be that candidate.
Governor Mead, on the other hand, will most likely receive a substantial percentage of youth votes, insofar as from Conservative identifying demographics. Republican leaning voters in the 18-30 age group are more likely to go to the polls simply because Mead’s campaign was run more efficiently, and he has name recognition.
The youth population of Wyoming is not apathetic in the sense that there is no awareness or passion in regards to political issues, rather they are realistic about the overall environment of politics which exists in Wyoming. There is very little desire amongst Millennial voters to wait until the Democratic party develops enough of a campaign infrastructure to truly begin challenging Republican candidates.
Sorry, Gosar, but we’d rather just move somewhere warmer anyway.
