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A single image sent to Express.co.uk underlines the potential for a catastrophic collapse in voting for Republicans in future elections. The map is of which party won the so-called Generation Z vote (18- to 29-year-olds) in last week’s midterm elections and whether it was Democrat California in the west or Republican Florida in the east, every single state was painted Democrat blue.
It is a demographic time bomb which awaits the Conservative Party in the UK too.
A quick look at the data from the latest weekly tracker poll for Express.co.uk from Techne UK paints a similar picture.
While the Tories are currently experiencing historically low levels of popularity the age categories under 45 are not even competitive.
For 18-to-24-year-olds it is 54 percent Labour, 24 percent Tory, in 25- to 44-year-olds it is even worse: 55 percent Labour to 22 percent.
If that were a general election result then the Conservatives would be facing a wipeout with a mere 14 seats left.
So while Rishi Sunak and the Tories, and Donald Trump or Ron DeSantis and the Republicans, are all focussed on crucial elections in 2024 the reality is they are looking at diminishing returns among the electorate.
The recent US election underline that young voters have turned their backs on the centre right (Image: GETTY)
Generation Z voted Democrat in every state (Image: TWITTER)
It is telling that Mr DeSantis’s extraordinary 20-point victory in Florida turning a purple swing state into a safe red one is still affected by the problem.
The governor who is being tipped as the favourite for a Presidential run as the Republican candidate won every single county and category of voters except one – Generation Z.
According to the exit polls in the US 63 percent of Generation Z voted Democrat.
The author of the image suggested that this meant 18-to-29-year-olds “all want socialism and open borders.”
Others on both sides of the Atlantic like to blame leftwing teachers, as Nigel Farage did in a recent interview with Express.co.uk.
But the issue perhaps is that parties of the centre-right are simply not addressing the problems which younger voters have.
Thinktank director Phillip Blond, the author of Red Toryism, recently suggested that the Conservatives should be looking at rent reforms because many younger voters cannot afford mortgages and are in effect “generation rent”.
READ MORE: Pollster dismisses claims that abortion fury stopped Trump candidates
Ron DeSantis had a historic win in Florida but lost among younger voters (Image: GETTY)
The surprise results in the US which saw the Republican red wave reduced to barely a trickle can also possibly be put down to the activation of Generation Z.
Younger voters are traditionally much less likely to vote but the impact of mail-in ballots (postal voting) in 2020 and now in the 2022 US elections has seen a transformation in targeted vote increases for the Democrats.
Postal voting increases the number of younger voters engaging with the ballot box.
The same is true in the UK. The Techne UK tracker poll showed that 37 percent of 18-to-24-year-olds would not intend to vote.
Without having to turn up on the day and fill in a piece of paper ahead of it – or better still letting someone else fill in the paper – it is easier to see how they might be tempted to vote.
Former Tory minister Lord Willetts has warned about the intergenerational gap in offers to younger and older voters.
It may be that younger voters have been indoctrinated by woke or socialist doctrines but perhaps Conservatives and Republicans need to make an appeal to younger voters which is the equivalent of the pension triple lock for older ones.
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