By Nathan Layne
Nov 15 (Reuters) - Barely a week after the midterm elections, Democrats are debating how to turn newfound support among young men into a lasting coalition, while Republicans are trying to understand why the group abandoned them so decisively.
An estimated 59% of men ages 18 to 29 voted for Democratic US House of Representatives candidates, compared with 37% for Republicans, according to Tufts University's Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning and Engagement. That marked
a sharp reversal from 2024, when AP VoteCast found young men backing President Donald Trump over Democratic nominee Kamala Harris by 14 points, 56% to 42%.
That rapid shift has made young men one of the most influential and unpredictable voting blocs in American politics, with both parties viewing them as critical to winning the White House in 2028.
Democratic Party operatives are wasting no time looking for ways to sustain their gains. At a conference on the party's future in Denver last week, one session examined strategy for winning over younger voters, under the title: "What we are still getting wrong about Gen Z."
Republicans have yet to conduct a formal postmortem, but party strategists and activists are already calling for an end to the unpopular war in Iran and measures to bring down the cost of living, according to interviews with five party officials and strategists.
"No party owns them," said John Della Volpe, director of polling at Harvard Kennedy School's Institute of Politics, arguing Democrats could keep some, if not all, of their gains if they deliver tangible policy results. "It will clearly swing."
Economic anxiety was a major factor in young voters' shift toward Democrats, but foreign policy also played a role, according to the Tufts post-election survey that found young men were more likely than young women to cite the war in Iran as an important issue heading into Election Day.
Trump's decision to strike Iran not only drove up gasoline prices but also broke a 2024 campaign pledge to avoid new wars, a message that had resonated with young men.
Hours after the Republican rout on November 3, Vice President JD Vance, a potential 2028 contender who has cultivated support among younger voters through his opposition to foreign conflicts, blamed Trump's decision to go to war for the party's losses. Trump, however, continues to defend his decision, with no end to the war in sight.
One Republican Party official involved in national midterm strategy described the results as "a punishment election rather than a political realignment," and predicted young men would return to the party.
A strategist who worked on a losing House campaign said Republicans could try to win them back by blaming future economic setbacks on Democratic overreach in Congress, including regulations that stifle growth.
The restlessness of young American men reflects a broader pattern emerging in democracies around the world. In countries ranging from France to Serbia, young voters have played a leading role in movements challenging the political status quo and protesting economic conditions.
CJ Pearson, a 24-year-old conservative activist who visited fraternity houses at Southern college campuses in the run-up to the election to try to rally young men behind Republican candidates, said the path to winning them back was simple.
"End the war in Iran. Bring down costs. And the coalition will return," he wrote last week on X, describing the effort to regain young men's support as "existential for the survival of our party in 2028."
WINNING BACK THE 'MANOSPHERE'
Trump's appeal to young men in 2024 went beyond concerns about the economy and persistent inflation under former Democratic President Joe Biden. He used social media memes to cultivate a more masculine image than his opponent and appeared on a series of podcasts popular with young men, tapping into the online influencer network known as the "manosphere."
Yet some of the same figures who helped Trump reach young male voters in 2024, including podcasters Joe Rogan and Theo Von, later criticized his administration over the Iran war and other issues, undermining his standing among their audiences.
Several Democratic candidates, meanwhile, turned to long-form podcasts, using less-scripted conversations to project confidence and authenticity and address a perceived weakness from past cycles, Harvard's Della Volpe said. They also sought to recast a positive vision of masculinity as standing up for ordinary people and taking on corruption.
Della Volpe, a left-leaning pollster who studies young voters, cited Senator-elect James Talarico of Texas as an example of a new crop of Democratic leaders whose conception of strength rests on empathy and concern for the vulnerable. Those qualities, Della Volpe said, are frequently cited by the young voters he speaks with as important.
But above all, young men this cycle were looking for leaders who spoke to their economic concerns. That message was central to Democrat Abdul El-Sayed's successful Senate campaign in Michigan. El-Sayed, 42, appealed to young men anxious about the cost of living and their economic prospects while also cultivating an image of physical strength, often appearing in fitted black T-shirts.
Milo Slevin, a 20-year-old who helped oversee El-Sayed's outreach efforts on Michigan college campuses, said Democrats now need to show young people they are taking concrete steps to address their concerns, including by advancing the debate over universal healthcare, a core El-Sayed campaign pledge.
New York State Senator James Skoufis, who helped lead the Democratic National Committee's effort to engage young voters this cycle, said ending Trump's tariffs and lowering housing costs were among the tangible steps young voters would be looking for from Democrats in the new Congress.
"Young voters want more than just messaging. They want more than just talking points. They want deliverables," Skoufis told Reuters.
Republicans, meanwhile, are scrambling to understand how they lost young men so badly. At a conference last week in Maryland hosted by the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, one panel discussed the party's challenge in winning back young men.
Veteran Republican pollster Kristen Soltis Anderson agrees with Democratic strategists on the need to get beyond messaging.
Republicans, she said, needed to offer young men "substance that says, ‘Here’s what we’re doing to make your life better, to help you form those families, to help you form those bonds, to help you buy that home, to help you have that opportunity.’”
(reporting by Nathan Layne, additional reporting by Tim Reid; Editing by Ross Colvin and Alistair Bell)
