OPINION:
The principles of business are simple. Find out what people want and give it to them.
Despite being the “pro-business” party, Republicans don’t apply this principle to millennial outreach. They should.
Millennials are perfectly positioned to vote for a free-market candidate. The numbers say it all.
Sixty-seven percent of millennials desire to start their own business one day. Sixty-four percent prefer free markets over government redistribution of wealth. And, in the last election, millennials’ top priorities were jobs, safety and education.
Despite all of that, why do millennials still vote Democrat two-to-one?
Answer: Neither Republicans or Democrats are providing an actual solution to millennials’ number one problem: Student loan debt.
Why then are Democrats winning millennials? It’s simply because they’re talking about the issue and Republicans are not.
But millennials are not a lost cause for Republicans.
The oft-labeled “entitled generation” is now the largest part of the workforce, consumer market and — coming soon — the electorate.
By 2020, millennials will be the largest bloc of eligible voters. Up to this point, Republicans haven’t meaningfully engaged them. That must change now. We’ve worked with top companies around the world on attracting and retaining millennial talent. Fortune 500 executives often ask us how our generation flocked to Democratic presidential candidate, Bernie Sanders — the 76-year-old professor candidate.
It’s simple. Millennials don’t want you to relate to them. They want you to listen to them.
Sen. Sanders listened and his stump speeches rested on two themes: (1) You need student debt relief, and (2) You deserve better.
Millennial unemployment and underemployment rates hit an all-time high halfway through President Obama’s time in the White House. In the final year of his second term, millennials had massive debt, low job prospects and a shaky financial future.
Now in 2018, millennials are experiencing a true economic resurgence for the first time in their lives.
But if Republicans think that millennials are going to see their big paychecks and thank their lucky Paul Ryan’s for the bump, think again.
As millennials who feel personally and professionally responsible for the future of our generation, we want free markets and limited government to be popular with our peers. We know from personal experience that lower taxes and less regulation makes sense for side-hustlers and startups alike.
Here’s how Republicans win over millennials:
• Understand millennials’ No. 1 problem and fix it right now.
Millennials are expecting a solution to student loans and fast. Democrats will dangle student loan debt forgiveness in 2020 and successfully lure many millennials away from free market candidates. The party that provides a specific solution to millennials’ student debt problem will win elections over and over again. Congressional Republicans must pass a private sector solution to the student loan crisis that provides a rapid payoff solution. Legislation we’re working on currently will accomplish this.
• Tell stories that matter to them.
In business, like politics, people remember stories not statistics. Yet Republicans continue to emerge with charts and graphs rather than anecdotes and analogies.
Millennials trust the reviews of their peers over professionals. Republicans must start putting younger faces in front of the microphone who can share with our generation what these policies mean for us.
• Master the art of sticky marketing’
Republicans run for election on tired mantras like, “We Should Run Government Like A Business,” and then completely ignore any principles of business growth or strategy. We have studied Millennial voting, buying and hiring patterns for over eleven years. Here is what we’ve found: Millennials buy into messages and movements that give them something to be a part of. This generation wants to help build the solution and put their fingerprints on it.
• Stop asking millennials to join you. Join them.
Millennials are the first generation who consider themselves political independents. We don’t join professional associations. We avoid labels and we embrace diversity — in every sense of the word. We’re not attending your conferences (they’re boring) and we don’t want to go to your meetings. And that’s okay.
The biggest blunder that Republicans make is focusing on millennial converts rather than making millennial ambassadors. Converts stay inside and do as they’re told. Ambassadors go out and relay your message to the community in which they live.
Millennials are perfectly primed to usher in the next third-party movement. We don’t join, associate or comply. We start and fuel movements that we believe in and are empowered by.
If Republicans continue down their current path, they will survive the next election, but not the next generation.
It is up to Conservatives, Republicans and Libertarians to build authentic bridges with our generation to solve our most pressing needs.
• Gabrielle Bosche, is the president and founder of The Millennial Solution, and Brian Bosche, is the chief operating officer at The Millennial Solution.
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