By Cameron Lambe

The average age of Republican congressmen and women is markedly lower than the average age of their Democratic counterparts. As a recent Wall Street Journal article pointed out, Republicans are significantly younger: 54.9 (R) and 60.2 (D) in the House, and 61.4 and 63.1 respectively in the Senate.1

While the age gap in the Senate is not especially remarkable, the over-five-year difference in the House is unusual, with the age divide normally hovering around two years. And not only is this gap strange, it also reverses the age roles that the parties have historically taken.

The Democratic Party has historically been and continues to be favored by younger voters. However, since the 2008 election, the gap between young Democrat and young Republican voters has narrowed.2

In 2008, 30% of Millennials (people born between the late 1970s and early 2000s) identified as Republican/leaning Republican compared to 62% for Democrat/leaning Democrat.3 Now, just two years later, the numbers have shifted to 36% and 56% respectively. While once there was a 32% margin between the parties among young voters, the gap has now shrunk to 20%.4

Interestingly, the numbers for active participants in the electoral debate are skewed largely in favor of Republicans, even amongst younger voters. For the under-30 crowd, only 27% of Democrat/leaning Democrat voters say that they’re giving much thought to the elections compared to 39% of Republican/leaning Republican under-30 voters. These numbers are a drastic change from 2006 where the respective groups were 47% and 31%.

The cause for this apparent shift is largely up for speculation. Undoubtedly, dissatisfaction with the economy plays a role. While Millennials remain the most optimistic about the economic situation, they too have felt the pain of a 10% unemployment rate. The recent surge in younger voters and younger congressmen could reasonably be explained by youthful impatience with Democratic policies that failed to produce results as fast as expected.5

Another potential contributor: the technology curve. Although frequently caricatured as slow to embrace change, the Republican Party has been far quicker than its counterpart to embrace the newest technological media. For example, the National Republican Party has produced 320 twitter posts in the past six months.6 Compare this to the National Democratic Party: 0. To this day, there is not even a twitter account for the National Democratic Party. Furthermore, more Republican congressmen have active accounts on twitter than their Democratic counterparts.7

Whatever the reason, the Republican party, both in Congress and in its voters, seems youthful and fresh in 2011.

References
1 Seib, Gerald F. “In With the New—and Young—Republicans.” Wall Street Journal. January 6, 2011. http://online.wsj.com/
2 “Lagging Youth Enthusiasm Could Hurt Democrats in 2010.” Pew Research Center for the People and the Press. October 7, 2010. http://pewresearch.org/
3 “Lagging Youth Enthusiasm,” Ibid.
4 Ibid.
5 Ibid.
6 http://twitter.com/RepublicanGOP
7 “Who’s Winning the Twitter Wars?” Newsweek, December 8, 2009. http://www.newsweek.com/