The Camera last week asked 100 incoming and current students on the University of Colorado's Boulder campus who they plan to vote for this November. The results:
56 percent: Barack Obama (D)
33 percent: Undecided
10 percent: Mitt Romney (R)
McKayne Boedeker -- a young Republican in a famously liberal college town -- is pausing his education at the University of Colorado so he can immerse himself in a job working 80 hours a week to help the GOP win targeted races this November.
A few years ago, it became clear that the free-market values of the Republican Party appealed to him after he finished a self-assessment in a high school civics course. Now, he's walking door-to-door with candidates in legislative races, recruiting volunteers and raising money for the party -- doing all he can to paint Colorado red.
Come November, Boedeker, 22, plans to cast his ballot for presumptive Republican nominee Mitt Romney, the presidential candidate whom he believes will be able to best jump-start the economy for college graduates trudging into the job market.
"My education can wait," said Boedeker, who will return in the spring to finish his senior year at CU. "This big of an election doesn't come around very often."
Back in 2008, then-candidate Barack Obama had a strong lock on the youth voting bloc and captured their unbridled enthusiasm. Sixty-eight percent of voters in the 18-to-29-year-old demographic cast their ballots for Obama, even though only 45 percent of them identified as Democrats, according to an analysis from the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement.
Political experts acknowledge that Obama still will earn the youth vote this year. But, they say, he's going to face more competition from Republicans this time around as they aggressively court the college-age vote. The
A University of Colorado student who asked not to be identified tries to get incoming CU freshmen to register to vote during an orientation picnic on the Boulder campus last week. ( CLIFF GRASSMICK )
GOP is armed with messages about youth unemployment rates, which ticked up to 12.8 percent in June, coupled with crippling student loan debt that surpassed the $1 trillion mark this spring. Added to that is the possibility that the millennials' economic woes could cause them to boomerang back home to live with their parents after graduating from college."It's almost an entirely different population of students. This cohort wasn't on campus and wasn't involved in the '08 election," said Kenneth Bickers, a political science professor at CU. "The Republicans see a big opening with young voters because of the terrible job market. There are a lot of students who are turned off by politics and who aren't all that excited by Obama.
"I don't necessarily see that translating to broad support for Romney, but certainly a drop in support for Obama."
'More of the same'
Crossroads Generation, a GOP super political-action committee, spent $50,000 -- a portion of its $750,000 seed money -- this spring to launch a social media campaign aimed at getting the attention of undecided voters. Their message is heavy on economics, and light on social issues such as the GOP's traditional opposition to gay marriage.
Boedeker said that that he senses more young people are warming up to the Republican Party.
"I think a lot of the youth got excited about Obama," he said. "He's very charismatic. If he would have followed through on half of his promises, he would have been the best president ever. But he ended up being more of the same. Romney is by no means perfect -- but he comes from a business background, not a community organizing background. And that's what we need to try and get our economy running."
But it's a far cry from the Ronald Reagan era, when "The Gipper" enjoyed solid support and high ratings from an electorate young enough to be his grandchildren. Youth approval ratings for Reagan hovered near 80 percent in 1986.
A Camera survey of 100 incoming and current students on CU's Boulder campus last week found that a majority -- 56 percent -- favored Obama in the upcoming election. Thirty-three percent of students surveyed said they were still undecided as to how
McKayne Boedeker, right, a University of Colorado senior, and Ellyn Hilliard, center, a Republican candidate for Colorado House District 11, talk about issues with Kristin Rahenkamp, an independent voter, at Rahenkamp s home in Niwot. Boedeker is taking the fall semester off to campaign for GOP candidates and says that the Republican message is resonating with young voters dissatisfied with President Barack Obama. ( CLIFF GRASSMICK )
they'll vote in November, and 10 percent said they plan to vote for Romney.One student said he plans to write in Ron Paul's name on his ballot.
Youth 'overwhelmingly support Obama'
Soon after the 2008 election -- a campaign that brought Michelle Obama to the Boulder campus to deliver a pitch on behalf of her husband -- the Boulder campus's College Democrats lost their office space in the University Memorial Center.
Carlos Garcia, director of the UMC, said student groups must maintain at least 20 office hours a week and building employees make daily checks to determine whether that requirement is being met.
"They lost their space," Garcia said. "They didn't score well on the office checks."
Meanwhile, the College Republicans have maintained a strong presence on campus.
Stephen Fenberg, director of New Era Colorado, a youthful civic engagement group with progressive leanings, shakes off the idea that today's college students, as a whole, are less Democratic.
"At the end of the day, young voters are going to overwhelmingly support Obama over Romney," he said. "I don't think there's any risk for Obama in losing the 18-to-29-year-old vote."
He explains that while young people tend to vote progressive, they don't necessarily affiliate with the Democratic Party and thus don't go out of their way to join campus political groups.
"Also, the party that is not in power is always the most energized one," Fenberg said.
'The excitement is real'
Tyler Quick -- the former president of the College Democrats who stepped down after he was elected in the spring to be a CU Student Government executive -- said that the less visible presence of the College Democrats is due to the fact that students are too busy working part-time jobs and internships.
Quick, speaking on behalf of himself and not the student government, said that Obama is the clear choice for college-age students. He rattles off reasons, including the president's health care legislation, which lets people stay on their parents' insurance until age 26, and the president's work urging Congress to keep student loan rates on Stafford loans from doubling to 6.8 percent this summer.
In April, Obama delivered an address on the Boulder campus, tailoring his message to be about college affordability.
Quick was among a few dozen students invited to stand on stage with the president.
"I was so lucky to stand behind the president -- I was there standing behind him physically and he was met with wild applause and there was one point when students started chanting 'four more years, four more years,'" Quick said. "But I was also standing behind him metaphorically."
Joe Neguse, a former CU student body president and a Democrat elected to CU's Board of Regents, said the youth's interests align with what Obama stands for -- including higher education affordability and health care reform.
"The excitement is real," Neguse said. "There are people out there who are passionate and excited because the stakes are so high. It's clear to me that the president, ultimately, with the help of young adults, will win this fall."
'Not in such great shape'
Leading up to Obama's 2008 election, Americans were ready for change: The economy was tanking, an expensive war was being waged in Iraq with no clear direction and people were outraged over the human rights violations of prisoners being held in Abu Ghraib, recalled Kay Schlozman, a political science professor at Boston College.
"Obama seemed to the younger generation to be a total breath of fresh air," Schlozman said.
Yet the president's approval rating among 18-to-29-year-olds has dropped, from 70 percent in 2009 to 51 percent this year, according to Gallup.
And this generation of new voters doesn't appear to have the same level of excitement as their peers in '08.
"At this point, new voters are looking around and saying, 'Yuck, we're not in such great shape. The economy is still slogging, Afghanistan is no picnic,'" Schlozman said. "So there's not a lot of enthusiasm."
Another survey by Gallup reveals that Obama leads Romney by a 35-point margin -- 64 percent to 29 percent -- among voters 18 to 29. But less than two-thirds of those 18-to-29-year-olds are registered to vote.
Schlozman said that young voters tend not be anchored by party ties.
"How they vote in their late teens and early 20s, though, tends to stick with them for life," she said.
'I think this year is going to be different'
Abby Kiesa, an analyst with the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement, said that there are 16.8 million young people who are eligible to vote who weren't old enough to do so in 2008. In total, there are 46 million young people eligible to vote.
Kiesa said that Republicans are making more concerted campaign efforts with the youth this election cycle to engage new voters. And the Obama camp isn't making any assumptions -- with campaign staffers reaching out to high school students and rallies on college campuses in swing states, including one at CU this past spring.
"Based on what I've seen, the Obama campaign isn't banking on loyalty," Kiesa said.
CU student Aslinn Scott, 20, is involved with several Republican groups including the Boulder Republican Women. She has firm conservative views when it comes to spending, a value that she carried with her while serving in CU's student government, which oversees a $36.6 million student fee budget. On social issues, she said, she's more moderate and expects that her life experience will help mold her positions.
The economy is of prime importance for her this upcoming election, and she said the job market is bleak for college graduates.
While the youth unemployment rate for those in the 18-to29-year-old age bracket is 12.8 percent, there are an additional 1.73 million young adults out of work who have given up looking for employment. If they were factored in, the non-seasonally adjusted youth unemployment rate would be 16.8 percent.
"I look forward to how charged it is going to be on campus," Scott said. "Obama was able to rally the youth vote, but I think this year is going to be different. The political climate has changed and I feel that students have been disillusioned by the 'hope and change' message."
Contact Camera Staff Writer Brittany Anas at 303-473-1132 or anasb@dailycamera.com.
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