If the GOP does not make inroads with millennials, particularly on the subject of LGBT rights, the party is "cruising for bruising" in 2016, according to pollster John Zogby, who was a guest Wednesday on "America’s Forum" on
Newsmax TV.
"The voters are coming to grips with the fact that there are more issues that are of greater importance than who people sleep with and who they choose to marry," he said, adding that millennials
— born from 1979 on
— will represent some 30 percent of the electorate in 2024.
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They currently match the number of baby boomers. This does not bode well for the GOP and their current reach with younger voters, said Zogby, founder of the Zogby Poll.
"Republicans win when they depress the turnout of young people," he said. "Young people are disillusioned with Democrats, liberals and in many ways with government, but when they're given a reason to vote, particularly to vote against someone or against a political party, their numbers go up in the electorate as they did in 2008 and 2012."
Zogby offered his thoughts on the recent outcry over Indiana’s religious freedom law, which
Gov. Mike Pence said Tuesday he would seek to clarify that it was not intended to discriminate against gays or other groups.
"The LGBT rights movement has flourished, not only in the last 10 years, but particularly in the last three or four years," said Zogby. "It's gotten a tremendous boost in the polls as well as in the battle for intensity. It's on a winning streak and gets its message out. The problem that Indiana faces is the bumper sticker war.
"Any time a governor or an elected official has to come out the very next day and say 'but, it's not what you think' or 'you're misinterpreting,' you're losing the bumper sticker war. That doesn't fit on a bumper sticker as well as intolerance
— anti-gay, anti-civil rights."