Millennials Would Have Elected Clinton

By NICK TISO

If only millennials voted in the 2016 presidential election, Hillary Clinton wouldn’t have only beat Donald Trump, but would’ve beaten him in a landslide, statistics show.

According to a tweet pictured on college.usatoday.com, if only millennials had voted in the election, Hillary Clinton would have won with 504 electoral votes, and Donald Trump only would have gotten 23. This was not the case in general election as Trump got 306 electoral votes and defeated Clinton who got 236. This was a huge surprise to many who watched the election unfold from the beginning as polls had Clinton winning the election days before. Clinton did won the popular vote, she had almost 3 million more votes than Trump but he was still able to win the electoral college, and therefor win the election.

Millennial Sam Mazen of Suffern N.Y., who was a Clinton supporter, was upset Clinton lost the way she did and wasn’t surprised to hear Clinton won the millennial vote. “I would much rather have a woman with years and years of experience versus a celebrity everyone loves because he’s tough and opens his mouth.”

Mazen didn’t care about her email scandal, and about those kinda issues but was more focused on the big picture, and believed millennials felt the same way. “Politics are dirty…it was about her plan. And he simply does not have any plans that will benefit this country.”

Millennials have changed voting habits throughout the years. In the 2008, and 2012 election Barack Obama won in a good part due to millennials and their use of social media. Being able to tweet, post pictures on Instagram, use Facebook and the other social media sites was a huge help for Obama. He was able to get 67% of the millennial vote compared to Mitt Romney who only got 30%.

Millennials love satire, and more fun content that will give them a good laugh. Satire skits, and jokes played a huge part in the election as Seth Meyers, Trevor Noah, Stephen Colbert, and shows such as SNL, and Full Frontal with Samantha Bee seem to push for the democratic candidate. These talk show hosts play a significant part on millennials as some would rather watch talk shows and get their other news from social media.

Young voter Steve Mora of Suffern, N.Y. was happy Trump won the election,  but was surprised to find out how the vote could have gone for Clinton if only millennials had voted.

“I don’t know, I feel like not enough people specifically from our age group, know enough about some of the things she has done in the past, like Benghazi,” said Mora, a college student. “I also feel like the second they find out you’re a Trump supporter they go after you.”

Millennials’ Views Lean Liberal

Millennials are outspoken about the future of America, and their political views seem to be more on the liberal, democratic side. According to Time only 1 in 5 millennials lean republican, and more than 60% wanted a democrat to win the White House. Most millennials backed Bernie Sanders, who eventually was beaten by Clinton in the democratic primary. Some millennials felt robbed when Clinton won the primary, others voted for her and even some voted for Trump.

Mike Clifford, a millennial from Tuxedo, N.Y.  was a Sanders supporter. When it came to the general election he didn’t vote for either candidate. “I didn’t agree with some of the things Trump planned to do, and how he uses Twitter to bash celebrities and the media, it’s childish.” Clifford strongly believed Sanders was for the people and wasn’t corrupt like other politicians, and he felt Sanders was different from them. “Clinton had some health problems that nobody would address and talk about. The whole email scandal was an issue to me…why would you delete the emails?” Clifford just felt like Clinton could not be trusted and would not vote for someone he couldn’t trust.

Not as many millennials backed Trump during the election. Tens of thousands of millennials have been protesting the Trump presidency on college campuses all across the United States as well as different countries.

Trump has been signing many executive orders such as bans on who can enter the country, immigration, the keystone pipeline — many issues that push the wrong buttons with millennials. Many seem outraged by what he’s been signing don’t want to accept his presidency. A popular hashtag that circulated after the election was #NotMyPresident; this was popular among millennials who didn’t want to except Trump becoming the 45th president of the United States.

Theresea Caney, who tweeted the electoral map showing the easy Clinton win if only millennials voted, picked up by USA TODAY, had the following caption with it: “This is how the millennials voted. Hoping this means the next generation will turn this planet around.”

Caney gives millennials hope that were upset with the election results. Millennials are glad to hear how strongly pro-Clinton they were and how they have such a big say in America’s future.

This Bloomberg article talks about millennials and how they voted democratic and third party, as well as not enough millennials voted in close swing states.