Today and tomorrow will mark a historic milestone for the Republican Party: the first-ever midterm election convention, to be held in Dallas. President Donald Trump will headline the event, rightfully tout his accomplishments, and rally his party to hold the line against Democrats in November. But as we think about winning the next election, we also need to think seriously about who will lead the party in the years ahead, especially in Congress.
Young voters hate Congress, and the distaste is bipartisan. Congressional Democrats beat Congressional Republicans in approval among voters under 30 by just one point, 26% to 25. Yet the Left enjoys political momentum with this demographic. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has become one of America’s most popular political figures. Zohran Mamdani has popularized socialism among a new generation of voters in New York, while Abdul El-Sayed is trying to build a similar movement in Michigan. The top two candidates raising the most money so far this year are Jon Ossoff in Georgia and James Talarico in Texas. They are all millennials.
I fundamentally disagree with the policies and vision these far-left politicians offer. But I’m more than happy to argue with liberals. What disappoints me is watching Republicans criticize them without asking why they have been so successful in the first place, and doing nothing to counter it.
The Left understands that movements need effective messengers. They find young candidates, invest in them, and rally around those who connect with voters. Republicans need to get much better at doing the same.
I say that from experience. I served in President Trump’s first administration and have run for Congress myself. On the campaign trail, some of my most encouraging conversations were with seniors who wanted to see a new generation step forward and lead. That talent exists, but too often our political system makes it unnecessarily difficult for new voices to break through.
Instead, consultants put lipstick on the same old establishment pig, recycling candidates who are part of the very system voters are frustrated with. We forget a fundamental truth: the reason someone runs for office usually tells you a lot about how they will govern.
We should be looking for young, new people motivated by something larger than themselves, people who see public office not as the prize, but as a temporary position of trust. The goal shouldn’t be to manufacture more politicians. It should be to find leaders who would rather accomplish something meaningful than simply become someone important.
Those are the people we need to hear from. The conservatives who can win over younger voters are those who share their concerns: struggling to buy their first homes, start families, build businesses, and achieve the basic milestones that once defined the American Dream. A generation has watched the cost of living rise while the institutions meant to serve them feel increasingly disconnected from their lives.
That vacuum has created an opening for the Democratic Socialists of America. They speak directly to the frustration young Americans are feeling. They tell them the system isn’t working for you, and we’re the solution. The problem is that their prescription is more of what helped create the disease: bigger government, more spending, more regulation, and more government control.
The irony is that many of the same young people adopting a fashionable hatred of capitalism are surrounded every day by its benefits. They sip lattes from the backseat of an Uber while scrolling social media on an iPhone, all made possible by a free market that lets entrepreneurs take risks, investors to supply capital, and businesses to compete. Precisely because our free-enterprise system is so successful, we often forget how extraordinary its achievements are.
But we cannot take them for granted. President Trump understood this and has pursued an economic agenda to cut taxes and regulation, unleash American energy, encourage investment and manufacturing at home, reduce the size and cost of government, and make it easier for Americans to build, hire and create. It’s a free-market philosophy built around economic freedom, entrepreneurship, strong families, private property, and the opportunity to build a better life through your own work and ingenuity. This is how we show young Americans who feel their dreams slipping away that they can find a path to prosperity without the chains of socialism.
To communicate this message, we do not need to manufacture a “Republican AOC.” But Republicans need to accept that politics has changed and our approach to finding candidates needs to change with it. Younger Americans want leaders who sound like real people and have the courage to say what they believe. They want to know what a candidate is fighting for, not simply what they are fighting against.
To find those people, Republicans should look beyond the traditional political pipeline and take chances on people with different backgrounds and experiences. When someone demonstrates the ability to connect with voters and communicate our values, we should invest in them early through mentorship, infrastructure, training, and fundraising. If we make them spend 20 years climbing the political ladder, or encourage the wrong candidates to run, we shouldn’t be surprised when we end up with a government that feels increasingly inauthentic and disconnected from the people it is supposed to represent.
President Trump understood that millions of voters were desperate for someone who sounded different, fought differently, and was willing to challenge a political establishment they no longer trusted. As the president runs the show in Dallas this week, helping chart the course for the party he transformed, Republicans should remember the power of his example and look for more leaders willing to break the mold.
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Catalina Lauf is a former Trump administration official, entrepreneur and former Trump-endorsed congressional candidate. She is the author of “Time to Choose.”
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