Republicans will always have a hard time winning the youth vote. No matter how you try to package it, the conservative message is one of "lets go back to the old days" with the majority of support coming from the older generation. That's not very appealing to young voters. The good news for Republicans is that young people don't vote at anywhere near the level that the older generations do.
If Republicans want to do something "groundbreaking" to start winning a big chuck of voters, they need to seriously take up immigration reform a start concentrating very seriously on winning the Hispanic vote, and also try to get the female vote back to at least around 50%.
Ford got 50% of 18-21 year olds and 46% of 22-29 year olds in 1976. Ronald Reagan actually did
worse than Ford among these two groups in 1980, despite winning the election. (
Wikipedia)
It's worth remembering that he and his wife were both strong supporters of the Equal Rights Amendment, which was sort of the 1970s equivalent of supporting same-sex marriage in this decade. Republicans don't have to be on the wrong side of history.
