Republican parents, Democratic daughters and what they mean for the GOP

Republican parents may pass on many things to their daughters — the color of their hair, the shape of their body, even the size of their ears. But increasingly they are not passing on something that may matter even more to parents: their political leanings.

As reported recently by Daniel Cox, director of The Survey Center on American Life, Republican parents are turning out Democratic daughters in much greater numbers than in years past. This is a remarkable departure from the norm, in which “political beliefs and identity carry forward across generations — a process generally known as political socialization,” Cox wrote.

Looked at as a whole, adult children tend to reflect their parents’ political views. According to Cox, “Sixty-two percent of Americans raised by parents who consistently voted Democratic identify as Democrats today, while 57 percent of those who had Republican-voting parents report being Republican.” And the more politically active parents are, the more likely their children are to share their views.

Except when it comes to daughters of Republicans.

Just 44% of women raised by Republican parents identify as Republican themselves, which stands in startling contrast to men with Republican parents who identify as Republican (67%) and women with Democratic parents who identify as Democrats (77%).

In other words, Democratic parents are, by and large, still turning out Democratic daughters. And Republican parents are still turning out Republican sons in reasonably large numbers.

So why do the daughters of Republicans grow up to like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and not Ted Cruz?

Cox has three theories that can be reduced to five words: abortion, LGBTQ issues and higher ed.

The GOP’s position on abortion rights and LGBTQ issues are off-putting to large numbers of young women, even those who are heterosexual. Says Cox: “Two-thirds of young women —but only about half of young men — have close friends who identify as gay or lesbian. These relationships certainly influence how young people develop their political views.”

He goes on to say, “Conservatives have long suspected higher education of indoctrinating their children. The evidence for this is not that compelling, but it’s plausible that the liberal culture of college campuses could impact the degree to which young people shed familial political values.”

And there are more women going to college than men, a trend that has been accelerating since 1980.

But, as Cox notes, “Family dynamics are complicated, and parents are hardly the only figures who influence their children’s political development.” In fact, sometimes a child’s political leanings seems to spring out of nowhere, as in the case of Amanda Gonzalez, a Democrat who lives outside of Denver.

Gonzalez, who is 39, registered to vote as a Democrat when she turned 18, despite having Republican parents and a Republican brother. “My parents and I joke that I have been progressive my whole life,” she told me.

Although they have significant differences in how they see the world — beyond “I like AOC and my dad doesn’t” — and tensions occasionally flare up over politics, they’re still a close and loving family, in part because they focus on what they agree on, and back off when conflict threatens.

Once, when Gonzalez was visiting her parents and a contentious issue came up, she said to her father, ‘OK, what’s your goal here? I’m going to be here for four days, and we can spend the time arguing about this or we can spend the time enjoying each other’s company.’ To his credit, he’s backed off a fair bit.” She added, “I love my parents. And it’s so much more pleasant and rewarding to foster the pieces of our relationship that do work very well.”

And perhaps there’s something to be said for having a family that looks like America, which is to say, diverse.

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That said, some Republicans parents might wish they, like Julie Harris, had a family more red than blue. Harris, an Arkansas resident currently living in northern Virginia during her term as president of the National Federation of Republican Women, is the mother of five adults — all Republicans.

She attributes this, in part, for her decision to raise them in a manner that steadfastly went against the culture — “like the salmon,” Harris said, explaining, “When they’re swimming upstream, they’re doing it for their very existence. They don’t just float merrily along. They go against the current. Their lives depend on it. That’s how they reproduce. And without swimming upstream, they would cease to exist.”

Harris told me she believes that progressive culture relentlessly courts girls from childhood, and mothers need to raise them with self-esteem that can withstand the pressure to always fit in. She also believes that children should be taught more about foreign policy and economics. “A lot of young people think they are Democrats because they want to be cool, to be part of this TikTok crowd, but when they get their first job and they start paying taxes, they will be coming asking questions, and that’s the best time to convert them.”

There have been many variations of the quip “Anyone who is not a liberal at 20 has no heart; anyone who is not a conservative at 35 has no brain,” which suggests, from a decidedly conservative point of view, that the responsibilities of work and family can invert one’s earlier political views. And indeed, a 2022 study from Tulane University found that having children corresponds with holding conservative views.

This — along Cox’s report — should be keeping the GOP up at night. With Americans marrying later — and women increasingly not at all — the Republican Party can’t count on these young Democrats to age into the GOP once they start a family.

And with older conservatives bashing young women for sport on social media, and George W. Bush’s “compassionate conservatism” now a relic of the past, there is little hope that the TikTok generation will be switching parties in the next couple of election cycles.

Republicans can find hope, however, in what should be keeping Democrats up at night: the GOP’s gains in young HIspanic and Black voters. And maybe not this year, or the next four, but eventually, at some point, Donald Trump will not be a factor. As Cox wrote, “Trump’s not the only reason for the growing distance between young women and the GOP, but he’s an unignorable one.”