POLITICO JOURNALISM INSTITUTE Ben Carson polling well among millennials

This story is part of the POLITICO Journalism Institute, a journalism training program offered to students by POLITICO. The program allows students to write, edit and produce news stories.

The Republican Party’s most unlikely presidential candidate continues to defy the odds on the road to the GOP primary. But Ben Carson’s campaign hopes may not survive if he tries to appeal to grass roots conservatives and tea partiers alone.


Carson’s presidential ambitions may compel him to ease the growing tension with children in Baltimore, who grew up knowing him as the one of world's greatest surgeons — or depending on the children, knowing very little about him at all.

We’re talking about the millennials.

Last month, Carson topped the Harvard University’s Institute of Politics millennial poll, a nationwide survey focused 18- to 29-year-olds. Though the poll did not present a clear GOP front-runner among that age set, the results showed Carson narrowly ahead of Rand Paul and Ted Cruz.

Millennials make up nearly a quarter of the U.S. population and currently outnumber the baby boomers, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. And with their voting participation on the rise, this group could become a crucial element in the 2016 election season.

Doug Watts, the communications director for Carson’s 2016 presidential campaign, credits name recognition as the foundation of any candidate trying to win votes.

“The two sets of groups that seem to know Ben Carson really well [are] people 45 and older and people 18- to 24-year-olds,” Watts said. “The younger voters know [a] lot more about Ben Carson than the general public. They were assigned [to] reading his books. They were aware of [his] story.”

The retired neurosurgeon’s first political splash came during his speech at the National Prayer Breakfast two years ago, where he doggedly embraced not being politically correct and criticized the Affordable Care Act as President Barack Obama sat only one seat from him.

But for Wake Tech political student Markeece Young, Carson’s speech at the National Prayer Breakfast served as another first.

“That was the first time I learned who Ben Carson was,” he said.

Known in the blogosphere as the Young Black Republican, Young is a political junkie. Scrolling through his Twitter stream reveals an unapologetic support for the GOP and pictures of him alongside Ted Cruz and Donald Trump.

Young watched Carson stumble on the campaign with political gaffes on gay rights issues. The 19-year-old activist attributes those blunders to Carson’s political inexperience, but the candidate’s bold statements have rubbed him and other millennial voters the wrong way by making light of issues most important to them, Young says.

“When he says he thinks selfies are stupid,” Young said, ”That is not how you start your youth outreach by downing something that is wildly popular in our culture.”

Surprised that Carson is polling well among the millennial base, Young argued that voters his age tend to support flashier and more inexperienced candidates, such as Obama. Young, however, is not voting for Carson in the Republican primary because he doesn’t believe Carson can resonate with youth as well as Paul or Cruz can.

“He hasn’t been in any political or leadership positions already,” Young said. “I think he needs more seasoning.”

Carson is known for pulling himself up from the bootstraps in the face of heavy adversity growing up in Detroit. Last month, the retired neurosurgeon visited with faith and community leaders in the wake of Freddie Gray’s death in Baltimore, a city that is a marker of the Carson’s historical success.

Ibrahim Auguste, a 21-year-old science major at the Community College of Baltimore County, had seen Carson several times in Auguste’s years growing up in Baltimore. He stood in the crowded conference room of the Bilingual Christian Church, a 15-minute drive west of Johns Hopkins Hospital, where Carson served as director until 2013. He thought Carson’s uplifting messages for city residents glided over the hard realities.

“People, in general, have been victims of racial prejudice and police brutality.” Auguste said. Harvard’s IOP poll shows that a large proportion of millennial voters are focused on the U.S. justice system and the #BlackLivesMatter movement. For Auguste, the GOP hopeful needs to identify systemic issues affecting his adopted hometown.

“Ah, man,” Auguste said, recalling his thoughts when he listened to Carson speak. “You’re really disconnected right now.”

Kory Boone, chairman of the Maryland Young Republicans, knew of the neurosurgeon in the context of black history and his accomplishments in education. However, with a crowded field of GOP candidates, Boone believes Carson will have to step up even more if he hopes to improve his reach among younger voters.

“We need to stop being on the defensive when it comes to these issues, especially with millennials,” Said Boone who said Republican candidates should campaign more on college campuses. “We need to articulate our message better. I believe that’s what we need to do as a party.”

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