Why was Donald Trump a hit with Gen Z?
| Updated:
Young American women were expected to vote for Kamala Harris in the presidential election, so why did so many opt for Donald Trump?
Listen to this article
Read time: 3 minutes
In brief…
- Kamala Harris was expected to perform well with Gen Z women who have never voted before, but much of this demographic voted for Donald Trump.
- Trump also got more votes from young men compared with 2020 after appearing on popular podcasts with predominantly male Gen Z audiences.
- The News Agents say young people are now seeing Trump as the norm, and that could have a “chilling” impact on the future of democracy.
What happened to the Gen-Z vote in the US election?
What’s the story?
Kamala Harris is no doubt still reeling from her devastating loss in the presidential election.
But Lewis Goodall says there is one thing the Democrats will find particularly “chilling”.
Team Harris may have been banking on Gen Z’s support, particularly young women who would be voting in an election for the first time expected to be against Trump’s position on reproductive rights and misogynistic comments.
“The narrative was that the new voters will be predominantly going for Harris if they were women,” Emily Maitlis points out.
While much of this demographic did vote for Harris, large swathes also opted for Donald Trump. In fact, a far higher proportion of young people voted for Trump this year compared with 2020 .
Exit polls show 33% of young women who voted opted for Trump in 2020. This year, 40% did.
Meanwhile, 41% of young men in 2020 voted for Trump. In 2024, 56% did.
How did Trump encourage more young people to vote for him this time round?
What does this say about young people’s political views, and how much emphasis should political candidates place on trying to attract these voters?
How Donald Trump grew his votes with minority groups
Did Trump attract more young voters than expected?
Trump actively targeted young men in particular, appearing on podcasts popular with this demographic such as The Joe Rogan Experience.
Around 56% of listeners are aged 18 to 34, and 81% are male.
Trump also appeared on “This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von,” which typically focuses on culture and comedy. The interview raked in more than 14 million views on YouTube.
Emily Maitlis points out that Trump had a clear method - talking straight to young men, getting them to hear him out in the hopes that they would go and vote for the first time.
“This clearly has paid off”, Lewis says.
Lewis adds that the “revulsion that was expected from young women” also never materialised.
It comes after Trump said he would "protect women, whether they like it or not", which drew significant criticism because of his previous comments about women's bodies – and his pride in having helped overturn Roe Vs. Wade.
Can Donald Trump run for a third term as president?
What’s The News Agents take?
Lewis notes that people in their late teens and early 20s have grown up with Trump in politics, and that could give some indication as to why many young people voted for him.
He says: “They've grown up with this guy. They know this guy. To them, he's actually the norm of what a president could be like.”
Meanwhile, Harris was actually the most successful with over 65s.
Lewis says this group perhaps has “a much greater conception of what a traditional, normal president would be like”.
He adds: “The chilling thing for the future of democracy, frankly, is that a lot of young people growing up in this country are looking at Trump and thinking, this is what a normal president is, and that's how they behave.”
No matter what young people think, Jon Sopel argues that no politician should purely rely on their vote as an effective political strategy.
“Any political campaign chief who says we're going to rely on the youth vote to get us over the line is going to get laughed at.”
Historically, Jon says, there have been so many elections where the narrative has been that "young people are going to really turn out to vote this time, and they are going to make the difference."
“That is what you need to watch out for,” he warns.
Listen in full on The News Agents
