Dems promoting AOC, Sanders falls flat with young voters as Gen Z sees through false promises: RNC youth chair
The Democratic Party will be the "Titanic at the bottom of the ocean" come 2028, according to Gen Z political commentator Brilyn Hollyhand, who is on a mission to continue building conservative support among the youth vote following President Donald Trump's strides with the demographic in 2024.
"They've actually put up figures like Jasmine Crockett and AOC and Bernie Sanders as their leaders. None of those people are inspiring Gen Z. None of those people are bringing more voters into the party. It's just making this weird, radical wing of the party be the vocal voices. So, by all means, let Jasmine Crockett, AOC and Bernie Sanders be the voice, the future of the DNC. It'll make our job easier come the midterms and come 2028," Hollyhand told Fox News Digital in an exclusive Zoom interview this week.
"It's a really weird position that they've taken to go more radical than Kamala Harris. And that's why Kamala lost, because she was too radical," he said.
Hollyhand, 18, is a political commentator and chair of the RNC's Youth Advisory Council who was invited to meet one-on-one with Trump in Alabama on Thursday, when the president delivered the University of Alabama's commencement speech. Hollyhand said that he and Trump discussed how to keep momentum among young voters following the 2024 election, when Gen Z voters swung to the right as Trump courted young people on TikTok and in podcasts. The youth vote, he explained, had long been in the Democrat Party's court before Trump upped the ante on youth outreach during last year's election cycle.
The 18-year-old activist does not graduate high school until later this month, but he has met Trump five times as of Thursday. The pair discussed how the Trump White House can continue expanding on the strides the Trump campaign made with young people, including Hollyhand suggesting Trump tweak former President Ronald Reagan's famed 1980 campaign question: "Are you better off than you were four years ago?"
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"A comment I made to him was, 'Mr. President, I'm a huge history nerd. And so I loved when you talked about that famous Reagan quote of, 'Are you better off than you were four years ago?' And that's something he echoed on the campaign trail a bunch himself. But something I specifically pointed out to the president is, 'We can tweak that a little bit.' And he said, 'What do you mean? What can we do?' I said, 'Well, now all you have to do is walk out on that stage and ask Gen Z, 'Are you're better off then you were 100 days ago?'" Hollyhand recounted.
"The resounding answer every single time is going to be, 'Yes.' I mean, gas is cheaper, the border's secure, and the president performed CPR on the American dream. So, I think everybody in my generation can agree, whether you love Trump or hate Trump, he is improving the nation and making life better for us," he added.
The political activist said that he floated to Trump that he could hold a 2025 version of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's fireside chats to talk directly to voters in a virtual setting, and he also told Trump that he has a "secret weapon" going into the 2026 midterms.
"I said, 'Mr. President, you're doing this crazy novel concept in politics called actually doing what the people elected you to do in office and actually keeping your promises. I know we never see politicians doing that, but you're doing that and Gen Z loves it,'" Hollyhand said.
On the flip side, Democrats have dangled promises of free college and cheaper costs of living to young people, while comparing Trump to Adolf Hitler and Elon Musk to a king, he argued. Hollyhand said such messaging has swayed some youths to rally around left-wing Democrats, such as New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, but that many Gen Zers are able to see through the "false bill of goods from the Democrats."
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The Democrat Party is in the midst of finding its footing and platform on a swath of issues ranging from transgender ideology to immigration and the economy after voters poured out in support of Trump and his policies in 2024 in an election that was viewed as a rebuke of left-wing policies. High-profile Democrats such as Ocasio-Cortez and Sanders have amplified their positions within the party in recent months, including hosting anti-Trump rallies and speculation mounting that Ocasio-Cortez could make a Senate or presidential run.
Hollyhand said that Trump could use his "secret weapon" ahead of the midterms and publish bullet-point lists of his accomplishments, which he argued Democrats will struggle to campaign against.
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"I think that's going to be a really hard thing to campaign against come the midterms. I think it's going to be super hard to campaign against this list of accomplishments come 2028. Where the Democrats are trying to … scare Gen Z with these emotions and dangle free things in front of them and say, 'oh, well, they're Nazis and they're Hitler and Elon Musk is trying to be a king.' And then we come out and just say, 'Hey, here's a bullet point list of the things we've accomplished in the first 100 days.' That's a really hard thing to campaign against," he said.
Hollyhand underscored that his meeting with Trump backstage at the commencement speech was relaxed and stood in stark contrast with how the media portrays the president.
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"This guy is genuine. Like the first thing he said was, 'You've been killing it.' He took the time to say, 'Hey, I actually watched your hit on Fox News this morning.' He could have been saying, 'Hey, Brilyn, get these youth numbers up, improve our numbers in this college campus, get more students out there in that arena.' He immediately turned it to, 'Hey man, you've been killin' it. …. That shows just the testament of who the guy is. And it wasn't like a serious back and forth. We were laughing, we're cutting it up," Hollyhand said.
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