National Republican Senatorial Committee communications director Andrea Bozek says targeting millennial voters involves reaching young people on social media but also by highlighting the issues that matter to them.
“I think Snapchat is sort of the easy answer,” Bozek told CNN’s “Party People” podcast hosts Kevin Madden and Mary Katherine Ham in a recent interview. “But I think a more policy-driven answer has to be talking about the issues that they care about, which I think No. 1 would be student loans.”
Bozek’s organization aims at keeping as many US Senate seats in Republican hands as possible.
The NRSC has its work cut out for them this fall: Democrats need to pick up four Senate seats this election cycle to regain control of the chamber (by splitting it 50-50) if Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton claims the White House, five if Republican Donald Trump wins the general election. Analysts point to as many as eight seats in varying degrees of contention — most held now by Republicans — putting the GOP on the defensive.
Bozek cited Iowa Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley, who is up for re-election this year, as a politician whose style in using social media resonates with his younger constituents.
“Even our older members can adopt some of these new technologies and reach those younger voters and make a connection to them,” Bozek said, saying Grassley’s voice on Twitter and elsewhere is “authentic” and offers followers a behind-the-scenes look at senator’s daily life.
Grassley, 83, is perhaps best known for tweeting his experience hitting a deer with his campaign vehicle in 2012.
While focusing on issues is a key recommendation from Bozek, she also said the platform for the Republican message is important. Bozek said the NRSC encourages their campaigns to spend at least 30-40% of their paid advertising budget on digital — citing on-demand video advertising, Pandora, Hulu and Snapchat as platforms beyond traditional broadcast advertising worth targeting.
“You really need a healthy mix of it all,” Bozek said. “Gone are the days where you can just put up a thousand points on broadcast and think that your message is going to saturate.”
To hear Bozek’s thoughts on the Republican presidential nominee, ticket-splitting and the most inspiring thing she’s seen this election cycle, listen to “Party People,” a new podcast where a pair of conservative CNN contributors talk to influential voices about the future of conservative politics and the Republican party.
Get CNN’s “Party People” podcast at CNN, Stitcher, TuneInRadio or iTunes.
