Every four years the Republican Party makes a half-hearted effort at its convention to appeal to people who aren’t old and white. This is a particularly tough task in 2016 given that the party’s aging white male nominee is explicitly campaigning on the premise of returning America to a white, male-dominated past. Not helping matters on this front was Monday Republican National Convention speaker Dennis Cook. Cook is the national leader of the Young Republicans; he is also, as you can see above, not a super young-and-dynamic-looking guy. In fact, his online presence seems to indicate that he is 38 years old, is the father of three children, and lives and works in the Chicago suburbs.* (You can be a Young Republican until you’re 40.)
Cook did not help himself when he appeared unfamiliar with the way that the names of websites work:
Look, I have nothing against having children, being in your late ‘30s, or living in the suburbs. Most of my friends either already meet those criteria or will do so shortly. But it is probably not the profile of someone who is going to get the millennials voting Republican.
*Correction, 5 p.m.: This post originally misstated that Cook appears to have two children. As of 2012, he had three.
