- Many younger Republicans see Paul Ryan as a symbol of their generation
- Ryan will have to make the case to young voters that GOP policies are an asset
- Young Democrats say Ryan is too far right to represent young voters
- 'Gen Xers' seen as more fertile ground for Republicans than Millennials
Tampa (CNN) -- For many Republicans of his era, Paul Ryan symbolizes an overdue change and call to the Reagan-era principles that appealed to many young voters in the 1980s and that the party hopes will attract a range of youthful support in November.
"As a fellow Gen Xer, I'm excited about him and it says a lot," said Dylan Glenn, a former Bush administration economic policy analyst who has been friends with Ryan, 42, for nearly two decades.
"There's a pent up demand that it's time for us and Paul represents the tip of that spear so to speak," Glenn said.
Contrasted with reserved Mitt Romney at the top of the ticket, the more youthful Ryan is hoping to energize a broad cross-section of younger voters beginning with fellow members of Generation X, those that followed baby boomers like Romney.
The first Gen Xers were eligible to vote for Ronald Reagan's second term at the height of his popularity. It was not known then that his political aura and his legacy of fiscal conservatism would endure well into the next century.
This group represents more fertile ground for Republicans in November than younger Millennials of Generation Y who overwhelmingly supported Obama four years ago.
Ryan will formally pitch his personal story and his aggressive budgetary reform agenda to party delegates and the nation on Wednesday night in a prime-time address at the Republican Convention.
"I accept the calling of my generation to give our children the America that was given to us, with opportunity for the young and security for the old -- and I know that we are ready," Ryan said in excerpts released ahead of the speech.
Amy Holmes, anchor of GBTV's "Real News" at the Blaze, a conservative news site owned by Glenn Beck, said Reagan won the youth vote in 1984.
"Alex P. Keaton wasn't the anomaly. He was the norm," Holmes said, referring to the preppy, politically driven teen sitcom character played by Michael J. Fox. "Reagan is not some boogie man for many Gen Xers."
Ryan's fiscal outlook for streamlining budgets and overhauling the Medicare healthcare program for the elderly is typical of the thinking of Reagan-influenced conservative Gen Xers, said Soren Dayton, communications director for the Young Republican National Federation.
"This is a guy who grew up in the context of Reagan's optimism" that included the belief that private enterprise is crucial to addressing national issues, Dayton said.
Young Republicans argue that Ryan's controversial "Path to Prosperity" entitlement reform plan, which proposes a partially privatized Medicare program, takes a cue from Generation X and Generation Y concerns that those benefits will not be there for them.
They also point to high unemployment for younger Americans as another factor that could push more younger voters into the arms of Romney and Ryan in November.
Young Democrats say Ryan's deeply conservative views diverge from many of his generation and may not appeal to younger voters either.
"He's really somebody who has taken positions that are way, way to the right of where most millennial voters are," said Sam Spencer, president of the Young Democrats of North Carolina and a delegate to next week's Democratic National Convention.
During the 2008 election, President Barack Obama won Millennial voters under the age of 30 by 66% to 32%, according to exit polls. A recent CNN/ORC International poll of registered voters found Obama with a 56% to 37% lead among that same demographic.
The Generation X vote was closer last time with Obama outpacing McCain by just 6 points, according to exit polling cited by the Pew Research Center.
Paul Ryan's Gen X sensibilities an asset
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