Kaitlin L Lange

IndyStar

Ball State student Cade Heaton was disappointed this summer when Democrat Bernie Sanders gave up his presidential bid and threw his support to Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton.

Like many other millennials, Heaton had supported Sanders, mainly because he seemed genuine. He distrusts both Clinton and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump so much that he’s most likely voting for a third party candidate — something even he says is an exercise in futility.

“Certainly for a lot of people, (Sanders’ endorsement) did shift their opinions,” said Heaton, 21. “But I still can’t.”

Poll after poll shows young people are unhappy with the presidential choices at the top of the ticket.

They are an especially significant voting bloc this year because this is the first presidential election in which voting-age millennials (18- to 34-year-olds) outnumber every other age group, according to U.S. Census Bureau data.

Normally, it’s an age group that leans left.

Their enthusiasm helped catapult Democrat Barack Obama into the White House in 2008 and 2012, but capturing them in large numbers this year is a challenging prospect for Clinton.

So far, there’s little indication she’s making significant inroads with young voters.

Clinton’s problem

Kyle Kondik, managing editor of the political website Sabato’s Crystal Ball, said Clinton can still count on the youngest voters to support her more than Trump. However, she’ll have to compete against third party candidates as well.

And capturing the enthusiasm that many millennials had for Sanders will be a difficult chore, polls suggest.

According to the Quinnipiac University National Poll released last month, 29 percent of those 18-34 said they would vote for Johnson. That is higher than the percentage of people who say they would vote for Trump — 26 percent — and just below the percentage of people who said they would choose Clinton — 31 percent.

Likewise, a New York Times/CBS News poll in September found Clinton’s support drops 10 points in those under 30 years old when including third party candidates, while support for Trump falls 7 points.

Heaton is one of those millennials who usually supports Democratic candidates but can’t bring himself to vote for Clinton in this election. For him, it’s a trust issue.

“I’m worried with a Clinton presidency, because through those (leaked) emails, you could already see money was being diverted from down the ballot tickets, to her, which is costing Democrats in state elections,” Heaton said. “And that makes me mad.”

Heaton is most likely voting for Johnson, since he’s the only third party presidential candidate on Indiana's ballot.

“I might go ahead and vote Gary Johnson, even though I’m not a libertarian at all, just because I don’t hate the guy. I think he seems genuine,” Heaton said. “I think he’s wrong about just about everything, but I think he comes at it in a well-meaning place, which is more than anyone else can present at the moment.”

Daniel Olsson, a 22-year-old graduate student at Indiana University, plans to vote for Green Party candidate Jill Stein. She's not on Indiana's ballot, but Hoosier voters can write her in.

Olsson helped the Sanders campaign this spring, working phone booths and going door to door in Iowa, Michigan and St. Louis. Even though he voted for Obama in 2012, Sanders was the candidate who drew Olsson into politics.

He plans to vote for Stein, not Clinton, because he agrees with Stein’s platform, and thinks climate change should be a bigger part of the election conversation.

“In our country, education and information are put on the back burner,” Olsson said. “(People think) It’s more important that we elect a candidate like Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump, and we have to win to avoid an alternative. But what we’re forgetting is people aren’t educated on the issues. Neither candidate provides substance. They’re not talking about real issues.”

Even though third party presidential candidates rarely win any states, that doesn't deter some millennial voters.

Voters such as Heaton acknowledge that third parties are also considerably less known. They aren’t even invited to the presidential debates unless they have the support of 15 percent of the population in polls, which rarely happens.

The last time a third party candidate won a state was American Independent Party candidate George Wallace in 1968.

Heaton said he realizes how difficult it is to make any considerable gains for third party candidates.

Still, he said doesn't mind “throwing away his vote” on a third party candidate to make his point that he's dissatisfied with Clinton and Trump.

Trouble for Republicans

Republicans have even bigger troubles attracting millennials — something Abby Weingardt, chairwoman of the Indiana Federation of Young Republicans, has witnessed firsthand.

Eight years ago, she spent her summer campaigning for former Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels in Hamilton County, a largely conservative area.



When she returned to school at Indiana University in the fall, she found herself in the minority as a Republican supporting the party's 2008 presidential nominee John McCain.



“We tried so hard down in Bloomington, and it was a hard atmosphere,” Weingardt said, recalling being criticized for wearing a McCain T-shirt. “It was seen as cool (voting) for Obama and not cool to be Republican.”



That spring Obama reinforced his "cool" image by visiting the school’s Little 500 bicycle race. His campaign also sponsored a free Dave Matthews concert on the campus.



In November, Obama clinched enough electoral votes to become president — as well as 66 percent of the millennial vote — creating the largest gap between average and young voters in presidential preference since polling began in 1972, according to Pew research.

While Clinton has struggled to produce the same level of excitement Obama had in 2008 with young people, Trump has an even larger disadvantage, since millennials are typically more liberal.

Pete Seat, a Republican political consultant and former Indiana Republican Party communications director, acknowledged that Republicans need to make changes to the party to not just win this election, but draw young voters in the future.

The 33-year-old sees a lack of empathy and ability to portray feelings on the Republican side as what's keeping young people leaning Democrat. He said politicians need to take a “page from Bernie’s playbook” and show young voters that they genuinely care.

Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, Trump's running mate, could be that answer — a messenger for Trump to convey the softer side of the Republican Party, Seat said.

Attempting to get votes by inducing fear of the other candidate, Seat said, probably won’t work with young voters.

“I don't see the lesser-of-two-evils message selling with young people the way it sells with older demographics,” Seat said. “I see them really wanting something they can feel matters and will make this country and the world a better place.”

Republican and Democrat operatives in Indiana said they are focusing on state-level races to try to get millennials interested in the major political parties even if they aren't interested in the presidential candidates.

Tony Samuel, vice chairman of Trump’s Indiana campaign, didn’t elaborate on a specific strategy the campaign was using to get young voters, but he said Trump’s message should get through to young voters because he is the only Republican candidate.

“The most direct strategy is creating jobs and creating an environment for more opportunities for millennials,” Samuel said.

Trump and Clinton both have tried to position themselves as the natural candidate for Sanders’ supporters. But a recently released recording of Clinton talking about Sanders’ supporters has upset Olsson and others.

"Some are new to politics completely,” she said on the recording. “They’re children of the Great Recession. And they are living in their parents’ basement."

Trump responded to Clinton’s comments, and has tweeted various statements this election cycle, in an attempt to gain former Sanders supporters.

“Bernie should pull his endorsement of Crooked Hillary after she deceived him and then attacked him and his supporters,” Trump tweeted.

Another tweet earlier in the election cycle read: “Sad to watch Bernie Sanders abandon his revolution. We welcome all voters who want to fix our rigged system and bring back our jobs.”

Kondik said Clinton’s best bet to get young voters to the polls is to make millennials fearful of a Trump presidency, highlighting his controversial comments that some may see as offensive.

“I think the youngest voters are very sensitive to issues of diversity and issues of inclusion, and Trump has a lot of vulnerabilities by those metrics,” Kondik said. “There’s a phenomenon called negative partisanship. It essentially means, when voters are more motivated to vote against someone rather than for.”

College campaign appearances by Sanders or Obama also could help help Clinton.

Sanders campaigned for Clinton at Ohio University on Sept. 17, and she spoke herself at Temple University in Philadelphia. She also appeared on the popular millennial web show Between Two Ferns with comedian Zach Galifianakis.

Low voter turnout



Even though millennials are now a coveted voting bloc, young people have a reputation for not turning out to vote.

In 2008, voter turnout among those under 30 was the highest since 1992, according to The Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement, or CIRCLE.

Still, millennial voter turnout was about 16 points less than the percentage of those over 30 who voted — and that was the smallest disparity between age groups since 1972, according to CIRCLE.



Rock the Vote, a nonprofit group, has been trying to encourage young adults to hit the polls since 1990.



Andy Downs, director of the Mike Downs Center for Indiana Politics, said young people are a difficult group to convince to vote, mainly because they aren’t in the habit of doing it yet.

And it's hard to help young people develop that habit if they dislike both the Republican and Democrat presidential candidates.

People inspired by particular candidates, like Sanders, not whole party ideologies, are less reliable supporters at the polls, he said.

Downs said typically campaigns calculate which groups they can and need to woo to win an election. As Trump's and Clinton’s campaigns calculate the easiest groups to win over, that might not include millennials.



“Every campaign will talk about trying to bring in disaffected groups,” Downs said, "but in the end, if someone is a regular voter and all you have to do is convince them to vote for you, it’s a lot easier than convincing someone to register to vote, convince them to vote and convince them to vote for you.”

But even if they don't need millennials this year, they will in the years to come.

