Page 11 - Laker Connection Fall 2016

By Dr. Joe Corrado • Associate Professor of Political Science
If the 2016 presidential campaigns are any indication, the most vocal candidates are deploying fierce social media strategies to stay on top of the daily news feed and in the minds of American voters.
Whether it’s a Twitter-generated #ImWithHer hashtag based off Democratic contender Hillary Clinton’s campaign motto or a flurry of Youtube videos coming from Republican challenger Donald Trump on the campaign trail, political teams are building a tribe of supporters through social media engagement.
Millennials (those born between 1981 and 2000) are almost as large of a percentage of eligible voters as baby boomers (the generation that came of age in the 1960s). But in the year 2020, when the next president wraps up his or her first term, millennials will outnumber baby boomers, representing 34 percent of eligible voters. Seniors will shrink to a mere 28 percent of potential voters.
... when the next president wraps up his or her first term, millennials will outnumber baby boomers, representing 34% of eligible voters.
Since President Barack Obama mounted the first social media campaign strategy in 2008, Facebook, YouTube and Twitter have become go-to channels for political teams to connect directly to millennials—and adults to a lesser extent—where they are more likely to discuss elections.
9
#millenialsvote