The party’s ideological future is in jeopardy as its leaders, once seen as its bulwark against the liberal agenda, are struggling to find the right message to appeal to a new generation of voters, the GOP’s newest political consultant says.
The GOP’s new political consultant, Scott Reed, said his firm is working with Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) to find a way to appeal not just to younger voters but also to the party’s traditional base.
“The message that Donald Trump has to offer, the message that Ted Cruz has to give, is, ‘We are not the party of the past.
We are the party that represents the future,'” Reed told The Washington Post.
“It’s an approach that’s really appealing to younger people.”
While Cruz has been criticized by conservatives for failing to bring the party back to the center of its policy agenda, Reed argues that he’s also made strides in building support among voters who are increasingly disillusioned with the GOP, who overwhelmingly back Democratic candidates in national elections.
The Republican Party has struggled to attract younger voters, especially among those who identify as independent or unaffiliated.
It’s been the party with the lowest percentage of young people in the U.S. in modern history, according to a Pew Research Center analysis released in June.
“You don’t have a message for millennials, who are the new voters,” Reed said.
“If you’re going to build a message that appeals to millennials, then you have to go beyond what you do now and do something that is new.”
The GOP is hoping to make a change, however.
Trump has promised to nominate Supreme Court justices who will overturn Roe v.
Wade, the 1973 decision that legalized abortion.
That has raised concerns among some conservative activists, especially as the court prepares to hear oral arguments in the case of a Wisconsin woman who filed a lawsuit challenging the state’s law.
Trump, Cruz and other GOP candidates have also vowed to repeal and replace Obamacare, a promise that has infuriated the Democratic Party.
Trump said that if elected president, he would sign legislation to repeal the health care law.
He has also promised to make the wealthy pay their fair share.
But those pledges have drawn ire from conservatives, who worry that Trump would pursue a government takeover of the health insurance market and raise taxes to pay for it.
Reed said that while he was skeptical of Trump’s plans to overhaul the health system, he believes Trump can get Republicans to accept changes.
“I don’t think Trump is crazy about the repeal,” Reed told the Post.
The RNC has struggled since the 2012 election to gain support among younger voters.
In a July survey by the Republican Party’s affiliate in Iowa, only 17 percent of voters under 30 supported Trump, according a CNN/ORC poll.
That’s down from the 43 percent who backed Mitt Romney in 2012.
The organization, which now has offices in Iowa and New Hampshire, is focused on persuading young voters to turn out in droves for elections across the country, Reed said, adding that his firm, the Reed Strategy Group, is working on a new advertising campaign targeting millennials.
He declined to provide any additional details on the new campaign.
In addition to the Trump campaign, Reed’s firm is also working on Cruz’s 2020 campaign, which is likely to focus on tax reform, immigration and social issues.
The former Texas governor has also been criticized for his stance on immigration, which many conservatives consider an assault on traditional family values.
His comments have caused some conservatives to criticize him for being too conservative, while others have accused him of being too soft on illegal immigration.
In an interview with the Post last month, Cruz was asked about the recent death of his grandmother, who was killed in a car accident in Texas while trying to visit her granddaughter in jail.
“Her name was Angelica.
She was an immigrant, she was from Mexico, she’s a great mother,” Cruz said.
The Texas senator told the paper that he was shocked and saddened to hear about the death.
“In all honesty, I was not surprised,” Cruz told the newspaper.
“She was the one who did the right thing and was there for her granddaughter, she took care of her granddaughter and her family and that’s the most important thing that I can say.”