WHAT ARE MILLENNIALS THINKING THIS PRESIDENTIAL CYCLE?

Millennial Poll Key Findings

Although our survey confirms our prior findings that Latino millennials are not very enthusiastic and interested in politics, this poll allows us to identify important differences useful for mobilization efforts. For example, gender continues to be a major factors, with Latinas proving to be less engaged politically across all indicators of the survey, and the youngest segment of this sub-group (18-25) being the least likely to indicate that they are going to vote in 2016. Interestingly, Latino millennials who are not as web dependent are also less likely to follow political news and certain to vote in 2016. We also find a large segment of this sub-group to express that they are treated as “outsiders” in society and that elected officials do not generally care about their communities. We also find that this group is angry with the state of political affairs and believes that social media can be more effective in creating change than voting.

Although Latino millennials in Colorado can generally be defined as liberal in their policy views, there are some important exceptions we should be aware of. For example, we see that Millennials are very supportive of policy to address climate change, creating a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants, and decreasing the cost of tuition for college, and allowing women to make decisions regarding their own bodies- each generating over 80% approval. However, this population has significantly less support for Obamacare, raising the minimum wage, repealing the “open carry” guns law in Colorado, and having a stronger US presence in Syria to combat ISIS.

The survey also reveals that it is critical to consider language preferences for this group of Latinos, as there are major differences across several key areas based on whether the respondent speaks primarily English or Spanish. For example, Latino millennials in Colorado who conducted the interview in Spanish are much more likely to identify as Democrats (65% compared to 49% for English), more likely to indicate they are definitely going to vote in 2016 (81% compared to 70% for English), and have much different views toward policy issues than their English dominant counterparts. Roughly 25% of Latino millennials in Colorado will require bilingual outreach.

The survey reveals that this population is going to be very challenging to move with messages, as very few test strongly among this group. Among the many messages we tested, interestingly, Trump’s inflammatory language regarding Mexicans/immigrants was viewed the most persuasive among this group. Teachers, community organizations, and family members are much stronger messengers for Latino millennials than either Local elected officials or celebrities, though big name stars (Jennifer Lopez/Shakira) will get them to an event to promote voting-important given high percentage believe protests are more important than voting.

This study was conducted by Latino Decisions in collaboration with the Latino Data Project. The poll included live interviews of 400 Latino registered voters in Colorado between the ages of 18-35 by telephone through both landlines and cell-phones. Respondents answered in English or Spanish at their discretion. Results were weighted to known population characteristics using the Current Population Survey.