Why Republicans are struggling in the battle for millennial voters

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• GWEN IFILL:

  Now we turn to the battle for the young voters, an increasingly important demographic that both parties are relying on to win in November.

  Lisa Desjardins reports from Cleveland here on why millennial voters have proved so difficult for Republicans to capture in recent years.

• LISA DESJARDINS:

  Their generation is poised to become a major political force. This year, millennials, the group between 18 and 35 years old, make up about a third of all eligible voters.

  That's now the same percentage as baby boomers. A recent Harvard Institute of Politics poll found young voters prefer presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton by a nearly 2-1 margin over her opponent, Republican Donald Trump.

• JACE LAQUERRE, Student Delegate:

  We're really excited to show you around the RNC this week.

• LISA DESJARDINS:

  Young Republican delegates are thinking about how to change that.

• JACE LAQUERRE:

  I think the Republican Party does have an image with young people. We need to work on a number of things.

• LISA DESJARDINS:

  Seventeen-year-old high school student Jace Laquerre of Vermont is one of the youngest delegates here this week. And he has a message to GOP leaders about his generation.

• JACE LAQUERRE:

  The top three things that are important to us is the economy. We're pro-life and we want a more tolerant party to the LGBT community and other groups.

• LISA DESJARDINS:

  Social issues like LGBT rights are a key with younger voters.

  Rachel Hoff is an openly guy delegate from Washington, D.C.

  RACHEL HOFF, District of Columbia Delegate: A majority of young Republicans now support marriage equality; 60 percent of the country now supports marriage equality.

• LISA DESJARDINS:

  Hoff unsuccessfully fought at this convention to try to soften the party's platform.

• RACHEL HOFF:

  Support for allowing same-sex couples the freedom to marry has grown substantially in our own party.

• LISA DESJARDINS:

  Instead, it became more conservative.

• RACHEL HOFF:

  The folks that would still like to deny same-sex marriage are over-represented in the party's platform committee, and in some ways that committee is actually out of step with the party as a whole.

  But it won't be long before a majority of the Republican Party as a whole supports marriage equality.

• LISA DESJARDINS:

  Donald Trump has talked more recently about respecting gay rights, even as he sees gay marriage as a state issue.

  But for Jesse Purdon, a 34-year-old alternate delegate from Florida, the party needs to rethink immigration.

• JESSE PURDON, Florida Alternate Delegate:

  Being a Latino in the Republican Party isn't the easiest thing in the world this election cycle.

  I mean, it's just honest. Continually railing on Mexico and saying all the horrible things that we say about them is not the type of message that resonates, well, not only with Mexicans, but the Latino population in total, because they feel they're all being painted with one broad brush.

• LISA DESJARDINS:

  Republicans are focusing on social and digital media, trying to reach young people on the playing field where they spend the most time, but many say that's not enough.

• FRANK LUNTZ, Founder, Luntz Global:

  We're not visual enough.

• LISA DESJARDINS:

  Frank Luntz is a Republican pollster, and he believes the party has a messaging problem with young voters.

• FRANK LUNTZ:

  They reject, frankly, Republicans on social issues, they reject Democrats on economic issues, which is what makes them in play.

• LISA DESJARDINS:

  And it is the economic issues that make 30-year-old Nick Ochs a decided Trump fan.

• NICK OCHS, Trump Volunteer:

  Immediately, I saw a plan to bring back a manufacturing base to America. And that's what the economy needs now.

• WILLIAM CARTER, Georgia Delegate:

  I think Donald Trump's message is resonating so well because it's not what a well-versed politician would say.

• LISA DESJARDINS:

  William Carter, an 18-year-old delegate from Georgia, believes Donald Trump is precisely the right candidate for his generation.

• WILLIAM CARTER:

  He doesn't jump around the issues. And his avoidance of jumping around the issues and telling it like it is, I think that allows millennials to go, wow, he really understands what's going on and he isn't afraid to say what he wants to say in order to get the point across.

• LISA DESJARDINS:

  A major challenge for the party is how to get more young people on board during this and future elections.

  For the PBS NewsHour, I'm Lisa Desjardins in Cleveland.

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