The Trump campaign’s success in making inroads with young men in the 2024 presidential election upended much of the conventional wisdom about the U.S. youth vote.
While the validated voter files will give us a more precise picture of how young people voted later this spring, a post-election survey by my organization found that 58 percent of Gen Z men (that is, voters age 18 to 27), reported voting for Donald Trump. Not since the election of George H.W. Bush 36 years ago has a majority of young men voters backed a Republican for president.
But a closer look at data suggests that young male voters may have been more up for grabs than was assumed. Young men have gradually been abandoning the Democratic Party label for much of the last decade, according to Gallup data. But it has only been in the last year or so that the GOP brand has become more popular with Gen Z men.
Our survey of Gen Z Americans, conducted in late 2023, found that Gen Z men were more likely to identify as Democrats than Republicans (30 percent vs 24 percent, respectively), with a plurality of Gen Z men identifying as independent or something else. Findings from our 2024 post-election survey, however, show a striking reversal of this pattern, with Gen Z men now more likely to identify as Republican (38 percent) than Democratic (23 percent).
The same survey also shows an increase in conservative identity among Gen Z men, up from 31 percent in late 2023 to 45 percent in late 2024; only about 1 in 5 Gen Z men now describe themselves as liberal.
What is driving this shift among young men — and whether it will become a longer-lasting realignment of political values — is still not certain. Some argue that cultural factors — particularly debates about masculinity and gender roles — are largely responsible for Gen Z men’s more conservative political outlook.
Many GOP leaders and other conservative influencers insist that the biggest crisis facing America is the left’s “war on manhood.” Feminism, they maintain, is the real reason men have become more isolated, are less likely to be employed, and have higher rates of mental health problems than their father’s generation.
While Republican voters in general have long been more likely to support traditional roles for women and men than other voters, a commitment to strong gender norms saturated the 2024 Trump campaign in the midst of a larger conservative backlash to transgender rights and the #MeToo movement. The fact that Trump faced a female opponent in November — a successful professional woman who chose not to have her own biological children — no doubt fueled those flames, too.
The Trump campaign certainly thought hypermasculine appeals would play well with many young men, as evidenced by its successful strategy to have Trump and Vance appear on podcasts largely inhabited by Gen Z male audiences.
Whether the success of that strategy indicates that Gen Z men have become more reactionary in their views about gender or have led them to be more likely to identify as Republicans (and conservative) is still open to debate. Some evidence from Equimundo and AEI shows that Gen Z men have become less supportive of feminism in recent years, are more likely than in the past to believe that men have it harder today than women and that men are increasingly likely to face discrimination in society.
But other research complicates that narrative. For instance, we found that just 22 percent of Gen Z men agree that the gains that women have made in recent years have come at the expense of men.
The American Institute of Boys and Men’s analysis of trend data also finds younger men have become increasingly accepting of gender equality over time, with strong majorities agreeing that working Moms can form relationships with their children that are as warm and secure as stay-at-home Moms. Young men increasingly reject the idea that men are better suited for politics than women.
The Republican Party’s enhanced embrace of traditional gender roles may have swayed some young men to vote for Trump (or to identify now more with the Republican Party). But the Trump campaign’s targeted efforts to engage young male voters in online spaces, particularly in the manosphere, may have sent an even more important signal to them that their votes matter. This strategic outreach stands in stark contrast to the Harris campaign, whose appeal to young voters primarily was aimed at Gen Z women, emphasizing abortion rights as a key theme.
It is important to note, however, that the leading drivers for Trump’s improved performance among Gen Z men this election compared with 2020 — and, frankly, with most groups of voters — were concerns about inflation and high levels of dissatisfaction with the Biden administration. our post-election survey finds that 64 percent of Gen Z male voters agreed that increasing costs of housing and everyday expenses was the most critical issue to their vote.
Whether the rightward political drift among Gen Z men becomes more permanent remains to be seen, perhaps if the economy performs better under a second Trump administration.
But it is important to keep in mind that young men today have actually become more liberal in their political outlook on a range of policy issues that are championed by Democrats compared with young men during the Obama era, from issues such as abortion rights, same-sex marriage, environmental protection, and gun control. They have also grown more supportive of labor unions and more supportive of a Palestinian state — though certainly not as liberal as Gen Z women have become.
In a political environment in which younger Americans are distrustful of government and other institutions in society, both parties certainly have their work cut out for them to appeal to Gen Z voters in future elections.
Melissa Deckman, Ph.D. is CEO of the PRRI, a nonprofit, nonpartisan research organization dedicated to conducting independent research at the intersection of religion, culture and public policy.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
