A supporter of President Trump wears an oversize “Make America Great Again Hat” at a rally at Southern New Hampshire University Arena on Feb. 10, 2020, in Manchester, N.H. Trump narrowly won young men last fall, a 12-point shift from four years earlier when Biden won the group by 11 percentage points.
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When Maryland Gov. Wes Moore laid out his legislative agenda during his State of the State address in February, he made a point to single out a particular group.
“We need to better understand and address what’s happening with our men and boys,” he said, pointing to nationwide decreases in young men entering the workforce or earning a college degree.
It is also a group that on a national level has been turning away from Democrats. President Trump narrowly won men ages 18 to 29 last fall, a 12-point shift from four years earlier when Biden won the group by 11 percentage points.
Moore says the change didn’t happen overnight, explaining that for many young men, their feelings likely predated the election.
“When you watch, oftentimes, a party losing people in an election year, that’s not the head, that’s the tail,” he told NPR. “The reason you lose in an election year is because you lost them long before.”
Now, Democrats are hoping that young men aren’t lost to the GOP forever. For several emerging leaders in the party — and potential contenders in the 2028 presidential race — that has meant making these voters a bigger priority, both in their policy proposals and in messaging that is increasingly tailored to them.
Moore says it’s an effort that stands in sharp contrast to what President Trump has done. While he acknowledges that the president has been successful at appealing to young men, he calls Trump’s strategy off base.
Maryland Gov. Wes Moore speaks during the Democratic National Convention in Chicago last August. As governor, Moore has made policies aimed at improving the lives of young men a priority.
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“He’s wonderful at telling you what’s wrong. He’s not a vehicle for the solution. But he’s a fantastic vessel for the frustration,” Moore said. “It’s not actually addressing the problem.”
For Moore, addressing the issues facing young men has taken on several forms. Since taking office in 2023, he’s worked to reduce incarceration rates for low-level drug offenses and increase access to apprenticeship programs in Maryland. He argues those are the kinds of effective policies that resonate with this age group.
Other rising Democratic stars have also called attention to young men. In her State of the State address this winter, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer announced an effort to boost access to college and training programs.
“The last thing any of us wants is a generation of young men falling behind their fathers and grandfathers,” Whitmer said.
Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer seen prior to the NFC Divisional Playoff game between the Detroit Lions and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers at Ford Field on Jan. 21, 2024, in Detroit. In her state of the state this past year, Whitmer announced a plan to boost access to college and training programs.
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Fear of falling behind
That worry of falling behind is something many men are wrestling with, according to a recent report by the Speaking with American Men (SAM) project, a new effort aimed at helping Democrats better reach and connect with young men.
“The traditional milestones seem impossible to achieve,” said Democratic pollster and youth politics expert John Della Volpe, who co-founded the project.
The report’s findings are based on a national survey and focus groups with men ages 18 to 29. Among its biggest findings is that concerns around mental health and worries about paying for things like housing and health care remain paramount for the group.
“Young men feel trapped,” Della Volpe said. “They have been raised and want to provide for others … but are unable to achieve that for themselves.”
When it came to politics, many expressed feeling disappointed by government officials. More than half of survey respondents said they had a somewhat or very unfavorable view of Republicans. That number rose to 73% when respondents were asked about Democrats.
Thinking back to his conversations in the focus groups, Della Volpe recalled participants saying that Democrats didn’t understand or care what their lives were like. He said some also expressed skepticism in the party’s ability to implement policy that could directly impact on their lives.
Those sentiments are a problem for the party, Della Volpe argued, but they can be changed.
“This is a generation of young men, they’re not lost to the Democrat Party. They’re not apathetic, and if we care about our democracy, everyone needs to be respected and everyone needs to feel that their voice can be heard,” he said. “If they don’t feel respected, don’t feel heard, they’re not going to participate.”
Meeting them where they are
The SAM report points to a handful of online spaces where Democrats could invest more time — highlighting that weekly, 95% of young men use YouTube, six in 10 use Reddit and more than 50% use Discord. The problem for Democrats is “the only people in those spaces talking to them about why they have problems are generally [from] the right,” said Ilyse Hogue, the former president of the abortion rights group NARAL Pro Choice America and a co-founder of SAM.
Some Democrats are starting to establish a presence outside of traditional media. In February, California Gov. Gavin Newsom, widely seen as a presidential hopeful in 2028, launched a podcast with a video component that is also available on YouTube. His first guest on the program was far-right activist Charlie Kirk.
Kirk is the founder of Turning Point USA, an organization that focuses on engaging young people in conservative politics. The 31-year-old has more than 5 million followers on X and hosts one of the most listened-to podcasts in the country.
“If you want to earn the respect of ‘forgotten America,’ you have to show them that you can intellectually joust with no script, no hard breaks, no producers in the ears, no teleprompters,” he said, quipping that Democrats “cannot survive” there.
“That’s where new media is going,” he added.
Some Democrats have embraced the challenge. In April, former U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg appeared on comedian Andrew Schulz’s Flagrant podcast, a show with nearly 2 million subscribers on YouTube and an audience dominated by men in their 20s and 30s.
The conversation — which lasted nearly three hours —was different than a typical television news interview. It ranged from jokes and frank questions about Buttigieg’s life as a gay man, to discussions about Trump’s policies and the flaws of the Democratic Party, including how they reach new people.
“We have to be encountering people who don’t think like us and who don’t view the world the way we do,” Buttigieg acknowledged. “Both in order to actually, legitimately become smarter and better and make better choices and have better positions, and just in order to persuade.”
Pete Buttigieg speaks at an election night watch party on Nov. 5, 2024, in Detroit. “We have to be encountering people who don’t think like us and who don’t view the world the way we do,” Buttigieg said on a recent taping of Andrew Schulz’s Flagrant podcast.
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Shulz who is 41, made headlines last fall for also having Trump on the show. However, he has also indicated a willingness to hear from left-leaning voices.
Buttigieg’s appearance was a prime example of how Democrats should begin building a connection with young men, said Rachel Janfaza, who founded and runs The Up and Up, a media and strategy firm focused on Gen Z.
“He didn’t overcomplicate it or try too hard to be somebody he wasn’t. He was himself. And that’s the most important thing,” she explained.
She argued that Democrats should spend time in online spaces that are not overtly political and are instead rooted in cultural topics. And while some of the content can occasionally get political, that isn’t its intended purpose.
“It’s not rocket science. The overly politicized or performative efforts to reach young people are not going to work. It needs to be authentic,” she said. “Young men don’t want to be talked down to or spoken to as though there’s something wrong with them.”
