Young conservative women look to rebuild the GOP after 2016

Ever since the RNC’s Growth & Opportunity Project was released after Mitt Romney’s 2012 loss, a large part of the Republican Party’s mission has been to reach out to millennials, women, and minorities in an effort to diversify the party.

“Young voters are increasingly rolling their eyes at what the party represents,” the report stated. “When someone rolls their eyes at us, they are not likely to open their ears to us.”

In her recent article for ELLE Magazine, Not With Her, But Not With Him: The Women of the New GOP, Rachel Combe interviewed eight conservative, young women who are “looking past November and are already at work building a Grand New Party,​” on how they plan to appear more inclusive and empathetic.

“The goal is to show that Republicans have a heart,” Alex Smith, CRNC National Chairman, said during her interview. “Look at Arthur Brooks at the American Enterprise Institute, House Speaker Paul Ryan’s new agenda when it comes to addressing poverty. There are many different stripes of Republicans. Right now, I think we sometimes get in the way of ourselves in telling our story to young people.”

That habit of getting in our own way has culminated in a presidential nominee who seems to constantly put his foot in his mouth, making offensive comments about race, gender, religion, and ethnicity regularly. This has made it difficult for the GOP to appeal to fast-growing voter groups that have traditionally rejected the conservative platform. But, the “Women of the New GOP” hope that with this crazy election cycle and a possible Trump loss comes the chance to rebuild and rebrand.