The Ohio Young Republicans held their annual convention in Akron over the weekend, discussing how to bring more young people to their party ahead of this fall’s election.
About 80 people – aged 40 and under -- attended meetings in and around Akron on Friday and Saturday hosted by the Summit County Young Republicans.
Chairman Alex Pavloff says young people are energized and engaged this year, and they are making big stride in recruiting.
“Where we excel as a group is as the grass roots activists. The people that are willing to go door-to-door and make phone calls. They can spend an entire Saturday out in neighborhoods and then come back and do a call center for two or three hours. We’re almost automatic at it sometimes.”
Josh Burton from Cincinnati is chairman of the Young Republicans, and says many of the attendees were networking and discussing the challenges of recruiting in heavily rural areas.
“Recruit from colleges or from certain schools and talk to your community members and host events. I know the Muskingum County Young Republicans had a trivia night. So there are events like that that they put on that bring them to a bar or public area and they can just join together. It’s not always just about politics but mainly about coming together as believers in the cause that we believe for this country and for our state.”
Burton, who is black, says that that can happen because the GOP is “a big tent.” And he adds that even though midterm elections historically swing away from the party in power, he’s finding Ohio’s Republicans are still energized after the election of President Donald Trump in 2016.
