Young men fled immediately after Trump’s campaign dominated by macho appeals

WASHINGTON – For years, Pat Verhaeghe didn’t think much of Donald Trump as a leader.

Verhaeghe then began watching more of Trump’s campaign speeches and appearances at sporting events online.

There was even the former president teaming up with Bryson DeChambeau as part of the professional golfer’s YouTube channel series to film a round of golf under 50 while chatting with his partner.

“I regret saying this, but a while ago I thought he was an idiot and wouldn’t be a good president,” said the 18-year-old first-time voter. “I think he’s a great guy now.”

Verhaeghe is not alone among his friends in suburban Detroit or the youth of America. Although much of the electorate shifted to the right to varying degrees in 2024, young people were one of the groups that turned sharply to Trump.

More than half of men under 30 supported Trump, according to AP VoteCast, a poll of more than 120,000 voters, while Democrat Joe Biden won a similar share of that group four years earlier. White men under 30 were solidly in Trump’s camp this year — about 6 in 10 voted for him — while young Latinos were split between the two candidates. A majority of black men under 30 supported Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris, but about a third were behind former President Trump.

Latino youth’s views of the Democratic Party were much more negative than in 2020, while black youth’s views of the party haven’t really budged. About 6 in 10 Latino men under 30 had a somewhat or very favorable view of Democrats in 2020, which dropped to about 4 in 10 this year. On the other hand, about two-thirds of young black men had a favorable view of the Democrats this year, which was nearly identical to how they viewed the party four years ago.

“Young Hispanics, and really young men in general, want to feel appreciated,” said Rafael Struve, deputy communications director for Bienvenido, a conservative group that has focused on wooing young Latino voters for Republicans this year. “They’re looking for someone to fight for them, to see their potential and not just their struggles.”

Struve cited the assassination attempt on Trump during a July rally in Pennsylvania as one of the catalyst moments for Trump’s image among many young people. Trump raised his arm afterward and repeated, “Fight! Fight!” The image was quickly printed on T-shirts.

Trump, Struve said, has also been able to reach young men more effectively by focusing on non-traditional platforms such as podcasts and digital media channels.

“Because I heard directly from Trump, I think it really made a difference,” Struve said of the former president’s appearances on digital and media platforms aimed at Latino communities, including town halls and business roundtables he attended in Las Vegas and Miami.

Not only did Trump spend three hours on Joe Rogan’s top podcast, but he also accepted DeChambeau’s “Break 50” challenge to the golfer’s more than 1.6 million YouTube subscribers.

Trump already had an advantage among young whites four years ago, though he widened the gap this year. About half of white men under 30 supported Trump in 2020, and slightly less than half supported Biden. Trump’s gains among young Latinos and blacks were larger. His support among both groups increased by about 20 percentage points, according to AP VoteCast.

It wasn’t just Trump. The share of young people who identified as Republican in 2024 also increased, largely aligning with support for Trump across all three groups.

“What’s most alarming to me is that the election clearly shows that America has shifted a lot to the right,” said William He, founder of Dream For America, a liberal group that works to attract young voters and has endorsed Harris’ candidacy. presidency.

With Trump’s bombastic demeanor and a political agenda centered on a more macho understanding of culture, he framed much of his campaign as an argument for men who felt slighted by the economy, culture and political system of the country. Young women turned to the former president easily, though not to the extent of their male counterparts.

It’s unclear how many men simply didn’t vote this year. But there is no doubt that the past four years have brought changes in youth culture and the way political campaigns have begun to reach younger voters.

Harris’ campaign rolled out political agendas tailored to black and Latino men, and the campaign enlisted a number of leaders from their communities to make the case for the vice president.

Her campaign began with a flurry of enthusiasm from many young voters, symbolized in memes and the campaign’s embrace of pop culture trends, such as pop star Charli XCX’s “beat-up” aesthetic. Democrats hoped to channel that energy into their efforts to mobilize youth voters.

“I think most young voters just haven’t heard the message,” said Santiago Mayer, executive director of Voters of Tomorrow, a liberal group that engages younger voters.

Mayer said the Harris campaign’s pitch to the country was “largely convoluted” and centered on economic messages that he said did not come across easily to younger voters who were not already exposed to political media.

“And I think the policies themselves have also been very narrow and targeted, when what we really needed was a simple and bold economic vision,” Mayer said.

Harris’ campaign featured appearances from a host of pop culture, sports and music stars, including Beyoncé, Bruce Springsteen, John Legend, Megan Thee Stallion, Lizzo and Oprah Winfrey.

Trump has also embraced pop culture by appearing at UFC fights, football games and appearing alongside comedians, musicians and social media influencers. His strategists believed that the former president’s ability to attract attention and make his remarks go viral did more for the campaign than paid ads or traditional media appearances.

Trump’s campaign also heavily cultivated networks of online conservative platforms and personalities who support him, while engaging a wider universe of podcasts, streaming sites, digital media channels, and meme pages open to listening to him .

“The right has been tremendously successful in infiltrating youth political culture online and on campus in the past two years, thereby radicalizing young people to extremism,” said He, who cited conservative activist groups such as Turning Point USA as having a huge effect in online. speech. “And the Democrats ran campaigns in a very old-fashioned way. These days, the battlefield is cultural and increasingly on the Internet.”

Republicans could lose broad support if they fail to improve the lives of Americans, Struve said. Young men, in particular, may drift away from the party in a post-Trump era if the party loses the authenticity and bravado of the president-elect.

Bienvenido, Struve said, will double down in the coming years to consolidate and accelerate the changes in voting patterns seen this year.

“We don’t want this to be a one-and-done thing,” he said.

Brown writes for the Associated Press. Associated Press writer Joey Cappelletti in Lansing, Michigan and AP polls editor Amelia Thomson-DeVeaux contributed to this report.