Now that the election dust has settled just weeks before President-elect Joe Biden took office, the Republican Party is starting to take stock of its future beyond President Donald Trump.
For many young Republicans, the loss of Trump signals an opening to new directions within the party. Several said in interviews that they want the party to become more tolerant and inclusive, while remaining true to conservative values.
“The GOP has a lot of really good policies, a lot of winning policies, but it looks like we can often be caught by the losers and fight like hell for them,” said Cameron Adkins, a second year who is vice president of College Republicans at Columbia University. “When, in reality, they are missing out on problems with the American people.”
Thirty-one percent of voters aged 18 to 24 supported Trump in November, according to the polls, against 37% in 2016. The Generation Z bloc, born after 1996, represents at least 10% of the US population, from according to a report by the Brookings Institution, and will only grow as the next elections approach.
Adkins, 19, said he hoped the party could expand its reach by continuing to prioritize basic social issues, such as weapons and abortion, while embracing a rapidly diversifying constituency, reducing its rhetoric around racial injustice, which polls show that young people tend to be more exploited.
“We must try to expand our reach, even if it costs us” some of the more traditional Republican voters, he said. “I think I am willing to lose, as long as we are doing the right thing.”
Clay Robinson, a leader of College Republicans at Arizona State University, also said he wants the party to focus more on inclusion.
“Our generation is much more concerned with social issues than, say, economic issues or something different. I think it’s a sign that we really care about the communities and the well-being of our people, not just their pockets, ”said Robinson, 19.” This is a more holistic approach than constitutes the health of each individual in nation.”
Several young Republicans specifically highlighted LGBTQ rights and climate change as essential to exploring the Generation Z bloc, because Generators Z are familiar with these issues.
That is why Isaiah De Alba, 19, said that the Republican Party needs diverse and young perspectives like his. De Alba, who grew up in Los Angeles in a Mexican Cuban family, is the political director of the College Republicans at the University of Oregon. He voted for Trump, but hopes that someone who recognizes that the country “is not the same place as it was 30, 40, 50 years ago” will lead the party next.
“I think the term ‘conservatism’ has been getting that really bad reputation for a long time,” he said, predicting that the party’s ethos will evolve to become, for example, less religious and more forward thinking.
“I feel like this should change in a way, so that people can understand a lot more than just ‘a bunch of old racist whites’ as they like to see, you know, but in reality, it’s a lot more than this. “
Not all conservative young people expect radical change, however. While most see a future for the party beyond Trump’s presidency, Sydney Salatto expressed frustration with lawmakers who, she said, turned their backs on Trump after his defeat.
While he continues to struggle with the election results almost two months after his end, Republican officials have begun to break with Trump because of his unfounded allegations of electoral fraud and his refusal to recognize Biden as the winner.
“I want to see a lot of primary and eradicated people,” said Salatto, 22, president of a conservative women’s organization at the University of Tampa. “I think they are just as bad as the Democrats.”
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Salatto said the party is no longer “a coherent group” and that lawmakers who are distancing themselves from Trump “are not serving” their voters.
Still, despite the dissonance, all young voters said Trumpism is here to stay.
Robinson said that while he supports Trump’s “America First” policies, they may no longer be defended by Trump himself. He said the party needs someone who “doesn’t necessarily drive people away like Trump does.”
They are waiting for new faces to lead the country.
“It will be difficult to remain relevant and to be re-elected,” said Robinson. “People speak at the polls and, if they are not willing to address these issues, they will pay the price.”