It turns out that there really is little discernible difference in how Rand Paul and Chris Christie have been faring with young people in matchup polls against Hillary Clinton. Harry Enten of 538.com finds that they both do 17 points worse (median average) against Clinton with young people than they do with the electorate as a whole.
One could argue that young voters might warm to Paul as they get to know him better; after all, 45 percent of Americans have no opinion of Paul. But it’s not entirely clear Paul’s numbers will drastically improve if young voters learn more about his positions. There are issues on which he is more aligned with young voters than other Republicans are, such as marijuana policy and perhaps the death penalty. But he’s not aligned with those young voters on several issues that Gallup recently found to be the most important: immigration, jobs and the economy, health care and foreign policy.
Of course, on foreign policy he may be more attractive to young voters than neoconservative alternatives, but he’s still at odds with them on things like foreign aid. Plus, he’s a serial plagiarist, which may not be as bad as vindictively shutting down the George Washington Bridge, but still isn’t exactly a plus.
Then there is this:
