Ep 25- How the GOP can gain ground with younger voters

None

Episode Transcript

(00:01):
Well, Jack, you know,there's a lot of ongoing issues that the
Democrats try to manipulate and use againstour youth, and they end up,
you know, the young vote.I think what was at sixth I forget

(00:23):
the percentage, It was enormous eighteento thirty year olds who voted for who
voted for Biden, especially eighteen tothirty year old women. But and that
you know the way that President Trumpis winning over, especially African American men.
If you really want to be competitivein these elections with everything you know

(00:46):
the left is pulling, you've gotto get the young vote involved. Two
and Republicans have a problem attracting youngervoters. But that's not necessarily always true,
and there are things we can doright absolutely. You know the old
adages. If you're not a Democratas a child, you don't have a

(01:06):
heart. If you're not a Republicanas an adult, you don't have a
brain. But we don't have tosit on our hands and wait for that
maturation process. You can put somesalt in the oats, if you will,
and lead the horse to water andthen make sure he drinks. And
that's what we're going to talk abouttonight. Yeah, tell tell us about
our guest tonight. So we haveChris Johnson, a born and raised Ohioan
and senior advisor to the National Federationof College Republicans, and he has a

(01:32):
wake up call for the GOP Thatwas his op ed that was published in
one of the area newspapers. Iwon't do them homage by naming them.
Thank you. He explains how Republicanscan start winning with young voters on issues
like abortion, education, and climate. Quote. We need a fresh playbook
that demonstrates how conservative solutions meet themoment and can address the real concerns of

(01:53):
young people around issues impacting our country'sfuture like education, energy and climate and
housing. So, without further ado, Chris Johnson, Welcome to Saving Liberty.
How are you, sir? Doinggreat? Thanks having me on.
Yeah, absolutely excited to have youwith us. Well, look, let's
go through a couple of the chaptersof the playbook you'd write for Republicans going

(02:15):
into the twenty twenty four elections cyclewith a massively important race for the White
House. Then talk to us.What would that playbook look like and what
would I guess what would be themost critical or most important issue that you
would pitch if you were writing itand promoting it. Yeah, it's it's
less about the specific issues and moreabout the reason why I use the word

(02:38):
playbook is Republicans, most recently seenin Ohio on issue one, we're really
good at playing defense, and weplay on our heels and we defend ourselves
and we say no, no,no, we're not evil. No no,
no, we're not you know,inter pejorative here. And instead I'm
saying we should go on offense.We should be actively advocating for where we
stand and why we stand for it. Don't just defend, you know,

(03:00):
the pro life cause, which isa just one in my opinion, but
go out there and say, here'swhat we're going to do for women and
families. Here's a true pro lifeagenda. And I work in the energy
space, so we're hearing a lotabout climate change from the left and all
that kind of stuff. And ifwe just stay on defense and say,
you guys are being hysterical, thisis ridiculous. You know, this is

(03:21):
alarmist, and we don't offer ouralternative worldview, we're gonna get caught and
we're gonna get beef because you know, I haven't played organized sports in quite
a while. But you've got toscore points to win, right, So
we need to go on offense asas the party and as the conservative movement.
Well, Chris, what does thatlook like to you? What does
that do? Because you know youngvoters like abortion, for instance, that

(03:46):
is the single biggest divisive issue Ithink, especially for younger people that you
know, all that my right,you know, reproductive rights, reproductive rights.
Republicans are against that. Republicans wantto control my body. Okay,
So for take let's take abortion forinstance, what was what does a strategy

(04:08):
look like going on offense? Like? Im I agree we need to be
more offensive and outgoing, but i'myou know, if you were putting together
you know, the plan or whatever, h how would that look for you?
How would you draw it up?How can we talk to young people
and get them to see the valueof life and then all life is precious?

(04:31):
Yeah, that's basically I would justreframe the issue. Right when you
get asked, you know, uh, why do you want to control women's
bodies? Why do you uh,you know, want to be an abortion
with you know, focusing on thatkind of stuff, that's playing defense,
that's playing on the grounds responding towhat the left says and does right,
So instead we should be immediately insteadof waiting for the left to attack us

(04:55):
and then just responding, we shouldgo out there and say, hey,
this is what we're going to bedoing for women and children. We're going
to be looking at policies like achild family allowance or a child tax credit
that a lot of Republicans have lookedat. I mean, Jade Vance was
flirting with the idea of programs thatwould make giving birth free. You know,
young people are yes, young andoften not married yet or not having
kids yet, but they want toget married. They want to have kids

(05:16):
no matter what. You know,you kind of hear from the uh sort
of elite media about how having kidsis bad and you know, uh the
kids. You know, people areyou know, too economically stressed to have
kids. People want to have kids. And so if we can go on
offense supporting policies that are effectively prolife, uh, that reframed the abortion
to shoot entirely. So so goingout there and you know, saying we

(05:39):
want to support you so that youcan have a family. We want to
and make that the debate, uh, and make the left have to debate
but essentially against that or you know, a lot of times end up agreeing
that we're right on this stuff,and they can no longer demonize us in
a way that alienates us from youngpeople, especially young people like myself.
You know, I just had uhI didn't My wife had our son four

(06:01):
months ago, and so that's thestage in life. A lot of us
are at h and meeting them wherethey're at by by not just responding the
left, but proactively saying, here'swhat a whole life ethic looks like,
here's what conservatives believe about families andchildren. It's going to be really hard
to call us, you know,sexists and women haters when we're talking about

(06:23):
you know, policies that would uh, you know, reform the healthcare system,
make it more efficient and reduce intomortality or maternal mortality. Use.
Those are exactly the kind of goon offense strategies that we can take,
uh. And those are exactly youknow, young people are tired of the
back and forth pro life pro choicedebate, and we have a real opportunity

(06:43):
to reframe this issue with a lotof young folks that you know, honestly,
a lot of young folks just aren'tpaying attention that much until an election
rolls around, and even then,so this is our our opportunity to step
up to the plate. He don'twant of sports metaphors here. Yeah,
I love it, Uh, Chris. It's a powerful point you make when
you talk about reframing the conversation.When you allow somebody to lead and use
their own buzzwords and really hemmy inthen you'll lose. And in negotiating,

(07:09):
for example, the person who speaksthe first time or the first price is
at a disadvantage. So it's importantto reframe. And I agree with what
you said. A couple of yearsago, we hosted Gopus Senate forms around
the state of Ohio prior to jdVance winning that nomination and then eventually the
election, and one of the candidates, Mike Gibbons, talked a lot about

(07:30):
what you just said with respect toabortion, and when he did it,
originally he took a lot of flak, but it really made sense to me.
Said, I'm pro life. I'mso much pro life that I care
about the life of the mother too. What are we doing for the mother,
what are we doing for the family, How are we helping her get
to the birth and through the birthin a way that helps her and the
child be healthy. From Jump Street, but pivoting, let's talk about either

(07:55):
energy or the economy, because Ithink the thing that it doesn't matter how
old you are when you up tothe gas pump and you see the price,
when you go to the grocery storeand you check out and you're spending
one hundred bucks and you bought fivethings, those things matter. How do
you reframe the conversation on the economy. Yeah, I love that you brought

(08:15):
up Mike Gibbons as will I firstmet him during the twenty eighteen race,
and yeah, he brought up alot of new and interesting ideas in new
and interesting ways. And yeah,basically on the economy, though, what
I would say is, you know, people are feeling that the effects of
Bibenomics it's not working right. Soinstead of of you know, waiting for
people to advocate for the Biden agendaor more spending or higher taxes or whatever,

(08:41):
and then we respond and say,actually that's bad, Actually that's why
inflation is happening, but meet themwhere they're at and say, like,
this is where our plan is toreduce costs. You know, one of
the biggest I mean you say,you know energy or the economy. There's
a ton of overlap there. SoI work in the energy space, and
the amount that we're feeling the priceof pump our utility costs are going up.

(09:01):
If you go on you know,the Ohio or Columbus Selbreddit, the
amount of posts that are about theirAEP bill being through the roof. People
are feeling it, and they knowwhy this has happening. Bad government,
bad policies. It's the limiting ofof American energy development done by this administration.
People are feeling that viscerally. Soif we go out there and we

(09:22):
can immediately explain not just we're apreferable alternative to the left where Democrats have
bad ideas, go out there andsay here are good ideas. So one
of the biggest ones obviously is,you know, we need to build energy
infrastructure right now. So if we'renot going out there and saying we want
to get rid of all the barriersto energy development, uh, you know,

(09:45):
we want to make it easier tobuild the energy for the future that
we're going to need, people getimplicitly that that's going to reduce costs,
and that's going to reduce costs forthem on their utility bills. And the
best part about you know, asolution like that in terms of how it
works with young people is, youknow, they like renewables, they like
clean energy, they get you knowwhatever. That kind of policy would boost
both you know, existing fossil fuelsand our ability to build pipelines and drill

(10:09):
and all that kind of stuff,but also help with our ability to build
you know, new nuclear plants andall kinds of new and innovative technologies that
young people are looking for. Andif they're seeing that coming from the party
that they think doesn't care about themfinancially, it thinks that they're out of
touch or thinks that they don't careabout the environment, it's a really unique
opportunity for young people to feel it, both economically and on the environmental side.

(10:33):
Pacts. What do you think isthe biggest pain point right now for
the younger generation? You said,obviously the economy, is there another one?
And then I'll actually couple these questionstogether, and the other question would
be it talked to me about housing, and how do you see young people
getting excited about what Republicans would proposeto really crack the code on the housing

(10:58):
shortage. Well, it's it's gota lot of overlap with what I was
just talking about. I would saythe biggest pinch that people are feeling right
now is housing. Young people arefeeling it disproportionately. Uh. You know,
back when my parents were my age, you know, they were buying
a house in Hilliard for you know, got one hundred and twenty grand something
like that. And now you're luckyto you know, find a house like

(11:22):
that for under half a million dollars. So it's just going to get worse
and worse and worse. And we'rewe as young people are feeling it.
We're putting off buying a house,we're paying more rent, all that kind
of stuff. And when we lookat a map and we see where rents
are going up, New York City, San Francisco, Washington, DC,
all of these are deep blue areas, right, and they're saying where rent

(11:45):
is going down and we're housing isaffordable. Texas, the Free State of
Florida. Uh, it's North Carolina. It's a lot of places where they're
legislators, legislators and their governors areRepublicans. Again, young people aren't stupid.
They can do the math and go, hey, if all these Blue
states are seeing, you know,California rent skyrocketing along with the taxes you

(12:07):
have to pay to live out there, and they're trying to survive and start
their careers and all that kind ofstuff, and they're looking at Florida where
you know, you can actually movethere, and people are moving there in
droves because it is more affordable.So it all comes down to ultimately,
Republicans want to build. Democrats don't. That's got to be the message,

(12:28):
is you want to future where webuild, where we grow, where there's
opportunity that will lower rent prices,that will lower energy costs, Increasing supply
lowers prices. Democrats have this loveof process and regulation and permitting and all
these little bureaucratic things that slow downand limit our ability to build because honestly,

(12:50):
I mean, they're stuck in thenineteen seventies environmentalism, right, they
think that they have to stop developmentbecause it's going to destroy the environment,
all that kind of stuff. Thestuff we're building now, it's cleaner,
it's more efficient, it's more innovative. Uh, it's not the stuff that
they're building in China or whatever that'sthat's dirtier and coal power and all that
kind of stuff. Not there's anythingyou know, wrong with some coal development,
but people can feel that, youknow, Democrat obsession with process U

(13:15):
is limiting the ability to build thehousing that they need, build the energy
that they need. So housing iswhere they're going to feel it most viscerally.
And there's an opportunity to have anentire agenda, an abundance agenda that
the that the GOP is talking aboutconstantly. I was speaking at the Younger
Republican National Conference, uh, youknow, recently, and uh, you
know, I spontaneously I was like, we need an American abundance agenda,

(13:37):
and that was you know, thefirst applause line of the night. And
uh and it's a room full ofyoung Republicans, right, Uh, we
can make that argument to not justyoung Republicans, but all young people.
Chris. You know, one ofthe biggest arguments against Joe Biden, obviously
not that is the fact that he'stoo old. You can see he's he's

(14:00):
not he's not cognitively high functioning.We know that, but they also kind
of view it as like well,Trump is you know this because the media
did such a good job. Trump'sa racist, Trump's this, Trump's that,
and and dude, all that stuff. It was. That's not fair,
but it was. The propaganda wasso good that young people like automatically

(14:22):
believe it. So when you takein age and in President Trump will be
you know, up there, what'sseventy eight next year? I mean,
what about this push? I thinkwe need to And this is why I
think vivek Ramaswamy is so refreshing,a breath of fresh air. He can
speak the language of the youth.He knows it. He's young, he's

(14:46):
thirty eight. You know, morecandidates like that having conversations because I think
we are primed to set up,you know, get the young vote to
set this up. But we haveto run the right candidates. And I'm
not saying I don't want President Trumpto run or what I'm I'm no,

(15:07):
I'm just saying like, when youget these young, energetic, you know,
guys like Veican and you know others, it's so I think that is
going to be a key too towinning over the youth votes so that they
don't feel like, oh man,I'm just voting for this really old guy.
Yeah, no, no doubt.And that's why, you know,

(15:28):
it's so refreshing to see, youknow, Governor of the Santis and Astor
Haley. Uh you know, Iknow they're a little bit older than me,
but there's still you know, theirparents, they're in what feels like
the same stage of life. They'retalking to the issues that we care about.
I mean, on that debate stage, I mean, the difference between
uh, you know, the AthaHutchinson worldview and Ron de Santis worldview could

(15:50):
not be starker, and I thinkof big reasons, there's a generational gap
there. So we're moving in theright direction with a lot of these folks
who get it, who who canspeak to these issues. Well, I
mean they got asked by a youngRepublican during that debate about the climate issue,
and I thought Hailey's answer was phenomenal, where she uh, you know,
acknowledges that something young people care about, but immediately points out that China's

(16:12):
the biggest polluter on earth. Whatare we doing to hold them accountable?
What are we doing to actually addressthe emissions that are effectively getting imported into
the United States through all the manufacturedgoods that we buy from China. Right,
that is a phenomenal. When Italk about going on offense, reframing
the debate, that's exactly how youshould do it. Right. You go
out there, you take the premiseof the questions sort of you don't take

(16:33):
it the way that Democrats want youto take it, which is, you
know, is climate change real orda da dah? That doesn't matter.
Like what matters is policy. Whatmatters is what you're going to do about
it. So for young people,they you know, they care about the
environment, they care about climate issue. They perk up when they watch younger
candidates speak their language and do itin a way that you know, when
Haley got done with that. Youknow, I'm sure there are a lot

(16:56):
of young young people that saw thatclass and we're like, you know,
because of course they're not watching thedebate. They just see the clips on
Twitter TikTok the next day. Butthey see that clip and go, you
know what, why aren't we talkingabout China? You know, Biden is
always talking about all this other stuff. He's talking about how we can't decouple
from China, and Nikki Hilly andrun the standards are going out. They're
saying, yes, we absolutely can. Uh that. That's a moment where

(17:19):
it's like, oh, this ishow we do it, this is how
you going off. Yeah, youknow, the climate change issue, that
is the number one thing young peopleare concerned by. And we can have
this debate all all day long.You know, personally, I think,
you know, I don't want togo down a rabbit hole of conspiracies,

(17:40):
but I you know that honestly,Like I just think there's you know,
we're doing some weather manipulation and modification. The military admits that as much China's
brags about it. So even ifthey think this is our fault for driving
cars, which is the dumbest thingI've ever heard, if they think this

(18:03):
is for that, and and they'rejust they're convinced, they're completely convinced.
And the scariest part is the readythey say, like young people don't have
hope, Like there's an argument thatthey say, it's like, well,
why bother starting a family? Youknow, Oh my gosh, we're gonna
be dead. I'm never gonna youknow, live to see retirement. We're

(18:26):
gonna be all dead. The planet'sgonna kill us. You know, you've
got to overcome that. And Ithink what you just said about you know
Nicki Haley's answer and other people,Yeah, got You can't just avoid the
question and shut it down and saybiggest hoax of all time. You will
never ever ever get that youth voteif you just blow it off and dismiss

(18:48):
it. Because it is the numberone issue of eighteen to twenty four year
olds in the country right now.Yep, that's exactly right. Yeah,
yeah, sorry, no, goahead, go ahead, Yeah, no,
that's exactly right. I mean,this is one of the top issues
and honestly, it intertwined with alot of the other issues that we've talked
about so much. And when youget into the you know, is a

(19:11):
real is it not? You knowwhatever, that's less time that you're talking
about policies that are unbelievably popular andmaking your case to the American people.
Uh and and you know, soyeah, And there's an like you said,
you know, people are young,people are depressed over this issue.
There there's a term work called climateanxiety where people are being told not to
have kids because it's bad for theplanet, where there's not going to be

(19:32):
a future or the world's gonna endin ten years and all this kind of
stuff. And I hate debating youknow, the science and all that kind
of stuff. You know, I'ma political policy guy. But regardless,
this is something that people feel.And I'm not saying you should validate those
feelings. But there's not continuity becauseif all they're feeling about this issue is
negativity and pessimism and the uh youknow, Twitter version of it, the

(19:55):
based word for it is dumerism,right where they literally feel like the sense
of doom constantly. There's an incredibleopportunity for Republicans step in and say we
should be optimistic about the future.We have so much opportunity to do so
much big stuff. We can beChina, we can perfect the environment.
Both of those are intertwined because China, you know, one of the biggest
pollutors, it is the biggest pollutoron Earth, you know, all those

(20:18):
kind of things. There's an opportunityfor all of us to completely reframe this
in optimism. And because young peopleare I mean they're still young. They
want hope. It's not like theywant to be anxious. It's not like
they want to be depressed over theclimate issue. And giving them uh you
know, a belief that that we'rethe party of optimism and the Democrats are
not is a clear opportunity. Andthe China thing is is great because I

(20:42):
think for a lot of this there'san assumption that to get correct on the
climate issue that means moderating, thatmeans moving to the middle, That means
getting squishy on a bunch of stuffand supporting some regulations or some you know,
spending here and there. Uh,absolutely not. The way we do
this is by going with the populispace, going with the Trump agenda,

(21:03):
uh and and putting a price onon the putting effectively a carbon tarraff in
place on Chinese goods. Because what'sthe left can argue against that that you
know that the carbon pollution that's inChinese goods is fine, but the stuff
that's coming out of our sail pipesis a serious problem, and Pep Buda
judge is going to scold you forit. Of course, that's that's a
great opportunity for us to go outthere. So right now in the Senate,

(21:26):
Kevin Kramer up in North Dakota,which is obviously big will and gas
state, is supporting what's called theProven Act, which would account for all
of the carbon advantage that American businesseshave, how much cleaner American business are
compared to China, compared to Rosha, compared to India, and effectively,
what we're not getting back for it, right, We're doing all this protecting

(21:47):
the environment, doing this stuff withthe clean of standard, uh, and
we're not getting anything back forward.So that that kind of legislation would at
least look into that and figure outhow we can monetize that and benefit the
American people. So that's exactly whereyou know, simism, the economy,
the environment, all those kind ofthings come together in a way that can
really win over the next generation forthe Republican Party. We just got to

(22:07):
go on offense and do it.I'm going to call it policy jiu jitsu.
You take the move or the movementor the momentum, and you use
what's given to you for your advantage. And I think one of the things
that you've pointed out, either talkingor in writing I read it somewhere that
is that from the presidential race perspective, it doesn't make a whole lot of

(22:29):
sense for candidates to weigh in aggressivelyon abortion, particularly when the people who
are for abortion don't want government involvement. I mean, is that how you
pivot? Do you say? Well, of course, why would I add
another layer of involvement here when theSupreme Courter already decided that the states are
going to make that decision, andI'm sure they'll do a good job.
And then you pivot on to somethingelse. But how do you jiu jitsu

(22:52):
some of the big issues like education, Because I'm a firm believer that we
are where we are because of howwe've raised our kids. It's the left
will never admit that they are indoctrinating, and the minute that you say that,
I think some younger folks automatically tuneout. So how do you jiu
jitsu into fixing the problem with ourpublic education system and our our universities that,

(23:15):
to me are producing cultural Marxists dayby day. Yeah, there is
a lot of the conversations you'll havewith any of your left of center friends
where they'll kind of whisper to youbehind their back, behind closed doors and
kind of say, yeah, youknow, I'm a progressive, but and
and almost always it's stuff with schoolkids, all that kind of stuff.

(23:40):
So when democrats go out there andprobably say that they support all kinds of
you know, different uh programs andyou know, medical procedures and all those
kind of stuff for kids. Right, even your you know, most left
of left young people are looking atthat kind of sideways. They won't say
of public because it's taboo, butthey're deeply uncomfortable some of the stuff that's

(24:03):
being taught schools, some of thestuff that we're doing to kids, teaching
kids all this kind of stuff,especially young parents. Right. So the
way that we politic jujitsu that kindof stuff is we uh, you know,
there's the meme from I Think youShould Leave where the guy says,
oh my god, he admit it. When Democrats go out there and proudly
say, yeah, we're teaching CRTin schools. Yeah, we're teaching gender
ideology to five year olds. Yeah, it's it's you know, and they

(24:26):
continue to ultimately brag about this madnessbecause they think it's popular. All we
have to do is say, yeah, we're not going to do that,
and uh, we're gonna get thatstuff out of the schools. We're gonna
because ultimately, parents, especially youngparents, they may not be saying it
publically, but though you know,behind closed doors. They're like, yeah,
this is kind of weird to beteaching an American history class about how

(24:47):
much America stucks. Uh, youknow, and uh and so and that's
coming from you know, progressive Soimagine how how popular that's going to be
with the moderates and independence that wedesperately need to win over. Uh.
That's that's how we take uh,you know, left or as a punch
with you know, yeah, we'regonna he told this weird stuff your kids,
and we roll with it, youknow, in the jiu jitsu thing
by saying, you know, uh, yeah, okay. Uh keep telling

(25:11):
people that because that is political,uh, politically incredibly toxic and they don't
realize it. Yep, yep.Chris. I want to thank you for
coming on saving Liberty. I hyou've made incredible good points. You're very
smart guy. You're clearly a greatspokesman for young people in the Republican Party,

(25:34):
and I I thank you. Andyou know, these are these are
things, these are strategies we needto implement, brother, and I think
if we do that, we gota really really good shot headed into the
future. So thank you so muchfor your time tonight. Brother, Yes
and Amen. Thank you guys somuch for having me. You, Chris
be well,