It’s funny…Google any 2016 article about Hillary and millennials, and there is one consistent theme—they don’t like her. Millennials, who showed up in droves at the ballot boxes for Obama in 2008 and 2012, are likely to stay home for Hillary, and here’s why:
They (Still) Feel the Bern: Although Hillary beat Bernie Sanders for the Dem nod, many millennials are diehard loyalists to this curmudgeonly 74-year-old white guy. These voters are absolutely dejected that Bernie didn’t get a chance to usher in his own version of socialist hope and change. Debbie Wasserman Shultz certainly didn’t help either, with all of the hacked emails that revealed they were trying to sway the election away from Bernie and towards Hillary. In every single one of the 27 Democratic states that hosted a primary or caucus, Bernie beat Clinton among millennial voters by a whopping 71 percent to 28 percent among millennials. Bernie even won over millennials by a 2-1 margin in states like New York and Pennsylvania where Clinton easily won overall.
Meh: Clinton’s cold demeanor doesn’t really sit well with anyone, and in particular, these young voters have just never warmed up to her. In 227 years since our first president was elected, this country has always had a male in office. As we all know, Hillary would be the first woman to lead the White House, but millennials collectively don’t view it as a big deal. Hillary represents the boring, entrenched establishment; she doesn’t shake things up like Obama and Bernie do. For millennials, feminism has a very different connotation because this generation’s females have so much more equality and access. So, simply being a woman is not enough for Hillary to excite millennials. She is female, but she’s also white and wealthy, which pretty much labels her as “establishment”, so she doesn’t win many points with this group.
Mistrust and Genuine Dislike: Millennials definitely dislike Clinton–really, really dislike her. We are talking serious dislike here. She lies. She dances around issues. She changes her views according to the group she is speaking to. She is insincere, and definitely evasive. Why hasn’t she improved over time?
An article from Mother Jones gave some great examples:
- When asked whether she lied to Benghazi families, Hillary’s response was “You know, look, I feel a great deal of sympathy for the families of the four brave Americans that we lost at Benghazi…”
- When pressured to release her Wall Street speeches, Hillary replied, “Let everybody who’s ever given a speech to any private group under any circumstances release them—we’ll all release them at the same time.”
Very slippery. Furthermore, as Mother put it, “It doesn’t even matter if they’re the truth. They don’t sound like the truth.”
The race is tight. Clinton and Trump are head to head. And this voting group, which now outnumbers baby boomer, could be the deciding factor in what is already a tight race.
