Millions of words and hours of news programming have been devoted to the issue of the Democratic Party’s recent loss of male voters aged 18 to 29.
Less discussed, however, is the fact that the Republican Party faces a more severe version of the Democrats’ current demographic crisis: the GOP has lost nearly all female voters under 30. Even less discussed is the fact that, while Democrats rack their brains trying to find ways to win over young men, the right doesn’t seem to recognize the seriousness of its own predicament, much less have a plan to fix it.
I suppose when you’re already used to surrendering entire voting blocs, as the Republican Party practically has in past elections with black and, to a lesser extent, Jewish voters, losing one more probably feels more a matter of routine than a sign of impending doom.
Yet, considering that there are eight million more registered female voters than male voters in the United States, and considering that of the overall number of female voters, the 10 percent to 12 percent that fall into the 18-to-29 age bracket are much more politically active than men their age, Republicans simply cannot accept that they’ve lost another voting group. Democrats, in some cases, can afford to lose young men and make up the difference with their more politically engaged female counterparts. The GOP has no such cushion.
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