Bloomberg News reports the results of a poll of Virginia voters aged 18 to 35, and it is bad news for Republican Ed Gillespie, Republican candidate for U.S. Senate against Sen. Mark Warner.
Democratic Senator Mark Warner captured 47 percent in a survey of voters between the ages of 18 and 35, which was released Thursday by the Wason Center for Public Policy at Christopher Newport University in Newport News, Va. The first runner-up was Libertarian Robert Sarvis with 24 percent. Eighteen percent said they were undecided, and 11 percent said they will choose Gillespie.
Other polls which have included voters of all ages have shown a clear lead for Sen. Warner, with a much lower percentages for Libertarian Robert Sarvis. It should be remembered that younger voters vote in lower percentages, and many might change their mind. But the poll results do show a future for Libertarian political activity in Virginia.
Full report @ http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2014-10-23/libertarian-leads-republican-among-virginias-young-voters-poll
If the Republican plutocrat wing bashes the social conservative wing hard enough, they may revive the Constitution Party.
Social conservatism is not going to disappear though. It is still at over 20% support among the young, and while few are going to actively oppose gay marriage, there may be a backlash against certain elements of social liberalism in the coming decades. Social conservatives are never going to support the Democrats, Greens or Libertarians in large numbers. With the constitution Party continuing to weaken, it will be interesting to see what will happen. Personally, as a young social conservative, but with many progressive beliefs on other issues (few libertarian beliefs except on immigration, the drug war and national security/surveillance), I’m a Democrat right now and my second choice would be the Constitution Party. I would like to see a pro-life Green Party.
Exactly! And thanks to the Republicans for helping move that along 🙂
https://independentpoliticalreport.com/2014/10/national-journalkoch-allied-group-urges-young-voters-to-support-weed-candidate
I think this speaks to just how massively unpopular the Republican Party & Republican brand is with young Americans. They clung to social conservatism so hard and for so long, that even now as they try to adjust to a rapidly-changing atmosphere in America, there may be irreparable damage already done. Millennials, set apart from all previous generations, are fierce social liberals, and while they may not rate things like gay marriage as a top issue, if you’re wrong on it, you might as well not even be on the ballot, they won’t even consider you. This is an opportunity for the LP to secure its future & promote free market principles balanced with social tolerance.
” and it is bad news for Republican Ed Gillespie, Republican candidate for U.S. Senate against Sen. Mark Warner.”
The original article did not say that, nor do I see evidence to support that conclusion.
In fact, it said that young voters are mostly likely to vote for anyone but the Republican, which could mean that Sarvis being in the race is bad for the Democrat – something that the polls, including exit polls, showed last year when he ran for Governor. This time, though, it doesn’t matter as much, because the Democrat has a big lead among all voters, with or without Sarvis in the poll.
“It should be remembered that younger voters vote in lower percentages, and many might change their mind. ”
The second part is true of all pre-election polls, especially in regards to third, fourth, etc candidates that are not seen as having a realistic chance to win. The first part is true most of the time, but not always – in 2008 I read that young voters actually closed the turnout gap among age groups.
A good testament to Rob Sarvis’s approach. Kudos