Democrats enjoyed a nearly 30 percent advantage among young voters in the 2008 election. In 2004, by contrast, Republicans lost the demographic by only 11 percent.
Some political observers have questioned whether the remainder of McCain’s Senate career would show the same level of leadership and participation in the Senate as before his White House run. His fourth term expires in 2010, but he has pledged to run for reelection.
The senior Republican senator from Arizona sent a clear message to colleagues that the answer is yes.
McCain left the private GOP meeting to join Feingold, Coburn and McCaskill at a news conference introducing their earmark legislation, which they would like amended to the economic stimulus bill being drafted by Democratic leaders and Obama’s transition team.
McCain said he was encouraged that Obama had pledged to have an earmark-free stimulus bill and echoed one of his most aggressive pledges of the campaign: “Our goal is not transparency. Our goal is the elimination of earmarks.”
McCain, humbled in his own stomping grounds, even found some humor in having to follow Feingold’s name on the bill. Feingold recalled the “Saturday Night Live” skit that McCain appeared in the weekend before Election Day, showing McCain peddling household goods in between campaign pitches, including a McCain-Feingold jewelry line.
Feingold noted Wednesday that the bill now be “Feingold-McCain,” prompting McCain to deadpan: “But it’s still a wonderful bargain.”
McCain told GOP colleagues that he thought he had a good chance of winning when gas prices were high and the GOP was gaining ground in the polls by talking about the need to expand domestic drilling, according to GOP sources in the room.
But McCain said he watched his poll numbers plummet when the stock market began to fall precipitously after Labor Day.
McCain told colleagues that he gave the race his best and apologized for the times the campaign flagged.
“He talked about the loss of Hispanics and the loss of young people,” said a GOP source. “He did stress the importance of the party reaching out to Hispanics.”
Sen. John Ensign (R-Nev.), who last year oversaw the Senate Republican campaign committee, said Republicans hashed out the need to reverse their slide in support among Hispanics.
“It was discussed big time,” said Ensign. “We have to reach out to Hispanics. We need to go on Hispanic media much more.”
Only 32 percent of voters between the ages of 18 and 29 voted for him and his running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin.
Republicans also discussed how they could rebuild the political coalition of married women, middle-class voters, Catholics and independents that enabled Ronald Reagan to win the White House in 1980 and Republicans to capture Congress in 1994.
“We discussed a whole range of things we could do better,” said Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) at a press conference after the retreat. “We obviously were not pleased with the percentage of Hispanic votes we got in the last election and we hope to do better.”
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