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TMCNet: Oklahoma Republicans target younger voters

[February 12, 2011]

Oklahoma Republicans target younger voters

Feb 12, 2011 (The Oklahoman - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- Oklahoma's Republican Party, which enjoyed great success in November when each of its eight candidates for statewide elected office won, is gearing up for next year's presidential race by taking aim at younger voters.

President Barack Obama may have lost each of Oklahoma's 77 counties in his 2008 election, but his popularity with young voters shouldn't be overlooked, Oklahoma Republican Party Chairman Matt Pinnell said Friday.

"Barack Obama is an unpopular president, but when he steps on a college campus he is still a rock star," Pinnell said. "We've got to compete for those same voters." The Oklahoma Republican Party is launching a website Monday that targets the millennial generation, those born between 1978 and 2000, Pinnell said. The website is emerge46.com -- it's for the emerging millennial generation in Oklahoma, the 46th state to join the United States.

"It's a new separate website paid for by the Oklahoma Republican Party," said Pinnell, who is chairman of the project. Lt. Gov. Todd Lamb and U.S. Rep. James Lankford, R-Oklahoma City, two of the younger officials elected to their posts in November, are co-chairmen.

"The college kids and young professionals are really a lot of our foot soldiers with walking neighborhoods," Pinnell said. "They show up at a lot of our phone banks and make volunteer phone calls. They're also the farm team of who our candidates are going to be down the road." For the first time in the state's 103-year history, Republicans control both the state Senate and House of Representatives, and a Republican governor is in office. In addition, all 11 statewide elected positions are held by Republicans.

Pinnell, who at 31 is the youngest state Republican Party chairman in the country, said the millennial generation is adding 4 million eligible voters nationally to the voting polls every year. Eligible voters in the group in 2008 voted for Obama by a 66-32 margin.

"The youth vote was a big block for him, and the Republican Party has to go out and start making an argument for the Republican brand," Pinnell said. "This is our effort in Oklahoma." By 2020 -- the first presidential election in which all of the millennial generation will have reached voting age -- about 90 million of them will be eligible voters, he said. They will represent not quite 40 percent of America's total eligible voters.

"We're the emerging generation, not the next generation," Pinnell said. "We're up to bat now." Democrats also target young State Democrats also are going after younger voters.

Megan Dubray, political communications director for the Oklahoma Democratic Party, said state Democrats are using social media, such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, to continue to reach out to younger voters across the state.

She said she will be attending new media training in Washington this month to get innovative ideas to improve the party's social media and youth outreach.

"In addition, we have a good infrastructure of Young Democrats and College Democrats organized around the state, and we plan to continue to build upon those organizations and coordinate with those young and student leaders on improving their membership and activity," Dubray said.

To see more of The Oklahoman, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.newsok.com. Copyright (c) 2011, The Oklahoman, Oklahoma City Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For more information about the content services offered by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services (MCT), visit www.mctinfoservices.com.

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