Tuesday’s midterms were a massive repudiation of Republicans, and no group sent a louder message than young men.
Young voters shifted left by more than 30 points from 2024, the largest swing of any age group, according to The New York Times. Young men swung nearly 40 points toward Democrats, just two short years after moving 23 points toward Republicans.
Most alarming of all, white voters under 30, who favored President Donald Trump 54% to 44% in 2024, backed Democrats 61% to 36% on Tuesday, giving the party even more support than Joe Biden won from them in 2020.
The collapse among young white men was self-inflicted, and some of the blame belongs to so-called conservatives who decided the smart play was to mock and lecture the very voters who helped power our historic 2024 victory, including in the final weeks before Election Day, when candidates should be giving voters every reason to turn out.
In September, Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders released a viral welfare-reform ad starring “Brad,” an able-bodied young white man dodging work while living off taxpayers. Conservatives widely rebuked the ad online, young white men most of all. Work requirements are sound policy, but choosing a young white guy is “dishonest and insulting,” The Federalist’s Sean Davis wrote on X.
On Election Day, Iowa Senate candidate Ashley Hinson declared that “if you’re a 29-year-old guy sitting in your mom’s basement playing video games, you shouldn’t be mooching off the federal government.” Hinson seems unaware that many young men live with their parents because they can no longer afford a basic starter home.
The day after the election, former Babylon Bee managing editor Joel Berry blamed young white men themselves, claiming they voted “overwhelmingly” for Democrats who want to “destroy young white men” and attributing their votes in part to online “victimhood.” Smearing a generation of struggling young men who feel betrayed by the leaders they elected will not win back a single vote.
Then there is Vivek Ramaswamy, who just weeks after Trump’s 2024 victory, claimed American culture had “venerated mediocrity over excellence.” Vivek showed his true colors by scolding middle-class families for having sleepovers, watching Saturday morning cartoons, and embracing “jock” culture, all to justify importing cheap foreign labor for Big Tech oligarchs. On Tuesday, working-class Ohio returned the favor, and Democrat Amy Acton easily defeated him for governor. I believe toxic Vivek is finished in politics, which is a silver lining for our America First movement.
Every one of these attacks targets the same group that Hollywood, academia, and radical left Democrats have demonized for decades. So why in the world are Republicans joining in?
If we don’t stop this self-sabotage, we will keep losing, and we will lose badly. White voters made up 71% of the 2024 electorate and 78% of Trump’s voters, according to Pew Research Center. They remain the largest voting bloc in America and the foundation of the Republican Party.
When you insult your own base, don’t be surprised when the base stays home or votes for Democrats, which is exactly what happened on Tuesday. White voters split roughly evenly after backing Republicans 58% to 40% in the 2022 midterms, according to the Fox News Voter Analysis.
The insults sting worse because young men are already getting crushed by the affordability crisis. Unemployment for Americans ages 20 to 24 hit 8% in September, and 42.5% of recent college graduates work jobs that don’t require the degrees many borrowed heavily to earn.
Artificial intelligence is also freezing the bottom rung of the career ladder. A Stanford study of payroll data found employment for workers ages 22 to 25 in the most AI-exposed jobs fell about 11% from late 2022 through June, mainly because companies stopped hiring them.
Meanwhile, worker visas force young Americans to compete for whatever entry-level jobs remain against foreigners willing to work for far less.
Republicans had a much stronger economic trajectory before the foolish war of choice in Iran. But on Election Day, gas averaged $4.10 a gallon, more than a dollar higher than a year ago. The 30-year mortgage rate sat at 7.18%. First-time buyers made up a record-low 22% of home purchases in the latest National Association of Realtors survey, and the typical first-time buyer is now 40.
A young man who can’t land a good job, can’t afford to fill his tank, and can’t buy a starter home will never ever be shamed into voting Republican.
Fortunately, Vice President JD Vance recognizes this troubling trend and is working to reverse it. In a recent interview with Jack Posobiec aboard Air Force Two, he said bluntly that the country “institutionalized anti-white, anti-male discrimination,” and he touted how the Trump-Vance administration is “telling the universities you’re not allowed to discriminate against white guys, against dudes, against anyone.”
He also validated young men who want faster progress, telling them they “should absolutely be demanding more, but also recognize the wins, because they are out there.”
Vance treats young men as fellow citizens with legitimate grievances, and every Republican who wants them back should follow his lead, because young men are naturally inclined to support us. They reject political correctness, embrace masculinity in a culture that demonizes it, and love their country.
The path to rebuilding our 2024 coalition is clear. End the war in Iran, bring down prices, and get back to the terrific pre-war trajectory of growing real wages. Dial back all immigration, legal and illegal, so young Americans stop competing against an endless supply of foreign labor and get the foreign students out as well.
Above all, renew the American Dream for our own young citizens. A good job, an affordable home, a family, and a future should be the birthright of every young American, and Washington must put their needs ahead of foreigners and foreign interventions.
Young men are the future of the America First, patriotic populist movement, and it is long past time Republicans stopped treating them like a punching bag.
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