New GOP Super PAC Looks To Harness Youth Vote
Crossroads Generation is out with a $50,000 social media campaign aimed at a demographic that helped fuel Obama's 2008 win.
| Posted Monday, May 14, 2012, at 5:12 PM
Photograph by Jared Soares/Getty Images.
Let the battle for the youth vote begin.
A handful of influential Republican groups have joined forces to form a new super PAC, Crossroads Generation, aimed at capturing the attention of teenage and twentysomething voters, a demographic that played a major role in Barack Obama's 2008 presidential victory and one that is seen as crucial to his re-election efforts.
The Associated Press reports that at the top of the group's to-do list is a new social media campaign, which launched Monday and targets the youth vote in eight swing states, including Ohio and Virginia. The group is spending a reported $50,000 on the outreach effort, and hopes that it will pay dividends by capitalizing on the younger generation's economic frustrations at a time when many recent grads are struggling to find jobs and pay off their student debt.
The new group was seeded with roughly $750,000 from more established youth-oriented groups, including the College Republicans and the Young Republican National Federation, as well as the Karl Rove-led super PAC American Crossroads.
