Republican Youth Are Numerous, Politically Active, and More Moderate than Older Republicans

Young people are diverse in terms of their identities, experiences, and political views and ideologies. Despite some perceptions that youth are all liberal or Democratic voters, there are millions of conservative and Republican young people around the country.

In CIRCLE’s pre-2024 election survey, as of October of 2023, 26% of youth ages 18-34 identified as Republicans. As of July of this year, almost 4 million youth ages 18-29 are registered Republicans, compared to 6 million youth who are registered Democrats. These young people take action politically: some participated in this year’s GOP presidential primaries, and in 2020 there were seven states in which more young people voted for then-President Trump than for President Joe Biden.

As we look forward to the 2024 election, better understanding these Republican youth is key to engaging them. Throughout this analysis, references to young Republicans include those who have self-identified as a Republican or lean in that direction. 

Young Republicans More Likely to be White, Male, Churchgoers

Twenty-four percent of youth ages 18-34 identified as Republican in CIRCLE’s pre-2024 election poll. Among those young people, 43% say they are a “strong” Republican, 22% “not very strong,” and 35% lean Republican.

The Cooperative Election Study allows us to understand young people’s party identification over time, going back to 2008. That survey’s historical data shows Republican identification among youth (18-29) has been relatively consistent over the past 15 years: with between 20% and 27% of youth in that age group identifying as Republicans every year since 2008.

According to our pre-election survey, the vast majority of young people who self-identify as Republicans (75%) are white. Republican youth are also more likely to be men (54%, 45% women), and the vast majority live in urban (29%) or suburban (47%) areas. Nearly half (46%) say they’re active members of a religious congregation or church, and 38% say they attend religious services at least once a week—though another 38% attend religious services once a year or less.

Religious institutions can sometimes serve as political homes for young people where they connect with others and take action in their community. That’s especially the case in rural communities, where youth are much more likely to belong to religious congregations than to other types of community groups. 

Republican Youth Are Less Politically Active on Social Media

While there’s often a lot of attention paid to activism from liberal or progressive youth, young Republicans are about as likely as young Democrats to engage in a host of civic actions like attending marches/protests, volunteering, or donating to political campaigns. The one difference: young Republicans (17%) were less likely than young Democrats (29%) to sign a petition or join a boycott.

There was a larger difference between young Democrats and young Republicans when it comes to online political engagement. While the overall numbers of youth doing so were relatively low, Republican youth (7%) were half as likely as young Democrats (14%) to post about elections and politics on social media or to share their views or experiences online. This type of media creation and social media engagement can be a key way for youth to make their voices heard and contribute to conversations about issues they care about.

Young Republicans are also less likely than young Democrats to say that there are resources to support their civic learning and engagement. While 43% of young people who identify as Democrats said that “there are people, organizations, or resources in my community that can help me make sense of and act on the information I find about social and political issues,” just 33% of young Republicans said the same. Youth who do not identify with either major party are even less likely to say they have such support. That is a critical problem for youth civic engagement regardless of party affiliation. 

Like young people overall, Republican youth are largely motivated to vote by the issues they care about. When given a list of possible motivations to vote, almost 60% of both young Republicans and young Democrats say they vote “to make a difference on issues that matter to me.” Just over one-third of young Republicans say they vote because they want to vote to give their party control of Congress.

Moreover, in the CIRCLE survey fielded in late October and early November of 2023, Republican youth were much more likely than Democratic youth to feel compelled to cast ballots because they believe in their candidates. According to that pre-election survey, 53% of Republican youth said they were motivated to participate in the 2024 election to support candidates they believe in—compared to 36% of young people who identify as Democrats. That said, it’s possible those numbers would look different today given the change in the Democratic candidate for president.

Young Republicans Have Different Views on Climate and Immigration than Older Republicans

As we might expect, young Republicans largely have vastly different issue priorities than young Democrats. According to CIRCLE’s pre-2024 election survey, Republican youth (ages 18-34) are most concerned about the cost of living/inflation, securing the border, restricting abortion access, opposing wokeness/cancel culture, and keeping ideology out of public schools. Meanwhile, young Democrats’ top issue priorities are gun violence prevention, addressing climate change, the cost of living, expanding abortion access, and jobs that pay a living wage. The cost of living/inflation is the only issue selected by more than a third of both young Democrats and young Republicans.

According to Cooperative Election Study data, young Republicans are generally supportive of action on key Republican issues. Two-thirds of them want to see more spending on border security, and over half support the repeal of the Affordable Care Act. Seventy percent support a 20-week ban on abortion, and a majority of young Republicans want there to be more police officers. 

However, there are also notable differences between younger and older Republicans that could shape how campaigns and organizations try to engage Republican youth.

On issues like gun control and abortion, younger and older Republicans’ views are sometimes notably different. For example, while Republican youth (ages 18-29) are about as likely as older Republicans to say they believe abortion should be illegal in all cases, they’re much more likely to say abortion should always be allowed: 42% vs. 27%.

On gun rights there is also some overlap, but some differences between older and younger Republicans. Both oppose banning assault rifles at similar rates, and over 60% of each group want it to be easier to get a concealed carry permit. However, youth are more likely to support encouraging states to take away guns from people who may pose a threat to themselves or others: 42% young vs. 30% older Republicans. And Republican youth are less likely to support allowing teachers or school officials to carry guns in public schools: 68% vs. 79%.

On issues like immigration and climate change, the differences between younger and older Republicans can be substantial. 

While, overall, the majority of Republican youth endorse a series of actions for stricter immigration enforcement, they are less likely to support some of them than older adults. Two-third of young Republicans support spending $25 billion to increase border security, including by building a wall, compared to 89% of older Republicans. Nearly all older Republicans (96%) want more border patrol at the U.S.-Mexico border, compared to 81% of young Republicans.

Republican youth are also much less likely to support reducing immigration by eliminating the visa lottery and ending family-based migration (44% vs. 69% of older Republicans). And while only 40% of older Republicans support granting legal status to illegal immigrants who have held jobs, paid taxes for at least three years, and not been convicted of felonies, 63% of young Republicans support doing so.

When it comes to the environment, young Republicans are also more than 20 points more likely than older Republicans to consider climate change a serious problem that merits immediate action: 53% vs. 30%. A majority of young Republicans (54%) want to give the EPA authority to regulate Co2 emissions, compared to about a third of older Republicans. Youth are also more supportive of raising fuel efficiency standards, and while most support increasing fossil fuel production it’s to a lesser extent than older Republicans (72% vs 88%).

These and other differences on major issues highlight that, just as youth are not a monolith, Republicans are not either. The party’s youngest adherents often have starkly different views that, in some cases, are more closely aligned with those of the rest of their generation than with those of older GOP members.

As with all youth, understanding the attitudes, experiences, views, and priorities of Republican youth is key to fully engaging them in democracy. Some of these young people may be especially in need of outreach and support to participate in elections; our previous research found that young Republicans were less likely than young Democrats to get information about the 2020 election.

We also previously found that young white men, who are overrepresented among young Republicans, were less civically connected to other youth and were less likely to join social movements or take civic action. That suggests there is a continued need to reach and support young Republicans and other conservative youth