☆ Insight: Silicon Valley's outmigration, cultural pressures make youth engagement tricky
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Isai Lopez, the Silicon Valley Young Republicans' president in 2022, shares key challenges youth-serving orgs face in the heart of the Tech Capital. Part of an Opp Now exclusive series on engaging conservative youth—in a poignantly progressive pocket of the U.S.
The SVYR is a local group affiliated with the California Young Republicans organization. We primarily do outreach events with the Central Committee of Silicon Valley for the Republican Party (especially during election season), through which we recruit conservative voters and encourage existing committed members to assist via particular roles. We also help identify possible candidates for local elections, and we work with local like-minded organizations.
Beyond this, the SVYR is a social group for conservatives in the area. As the Valley runs very liberal, we've observed a real need for young conservative professionals to meet and connect with each other.
However, there are certainly challenges unique to the Silicon Valley:
There's a lot of turnover: A lot of our chapter members are 25–30 years old, and many leave the area for other career opportunities or lower living costs. That's why it's important to be constantly recruiting, maintaining members, and replacing folks in leadership.
There tends to be low engagement outside of our social events (e.g., in volunteering with outreach or campaigning). Unfortunately, many members are concerned someone will see them volunteering with SVYR and know they're conservative. So they're wanting to protect their privacy.
I think a lot of people in the area don't actually vote according to their values. They may agree with our philosophy but misunderstand what a conservative or Republican is, and not want to get involved. Really, it's difficult to compare Silicon Valley politics with that of adjacent cities.
It takes much time and effort to recruit and then support candidates for local office. One other group that's doing quite well at this is the Silicon Valley Association of Republican Women (SVARW). They're good at regularly engaging with young professionals through various events, and they're very dedicated to helping young candidates in office through various resources.
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