Washington (AP) Pat Verhaeghe didn’t think highly of Donald Trump as a leader for a long time.
Subsequently, Verhaeghe started watching more of Trump’s campaign speeches and appearances at athletic events on the internet.
As part of the pro golfer’s YouTube channel series, the former president even paired up with Bryson DeChambeau to play an under-50 round of golf while chatting with his partner.
The 18-year-old first-time voter stated, “I regret saying this, but a while ago I thought he was an idiot and that he wouldn’t be a good president.” He seems like a wonderful man now.
Verhaeghe is not alone among young guys in America or his buddies in the Detroit suburbs. Young men were among the demographics that saw a significant change in favor of Trump in 2024, despite the fact that a large portion of the electorate moved to the right to varied degrees.
According to AP VoteCast, a survey of over 120,000 voters, more than half of men under 30 voted for Trump, although four years prior, Democrat Joe Biden had a comparable percentage of this demographic. While young Latino males were divided between the two candidates, white men under 30 were firmly in Trump’s camp this year, with almost 60% of them voting for him. About one-third of Black men under 30 backed Trump, while the majority backed Democrat Kamala Harris.
While young Black men’s opinions of the Democratic Party remained largely unchanged from 2020, those of young Latino men were significantly more pessimistic. In 2020, over 6 out of 10 Latino men under 30 had a somewhat or extremely favorable opinion of the Democrats; this year, that number is down to approximately 4 out of 10. However, this year, nearly two-thirds of young Black men had a positive opinion of the Democrats, which was about the same as their opinion four years prior.
Rafael Struve, deputy director of communications for Bienvenido, a conservative organization that targeted young Hispanic voters for Republicans this year, stated that young Hispanic males, and really young men in general, want to be appreciated. They want someone who stands up for them and looks beyond their difficulties to their potential.
One of the events that sparked Trump’s popularity among young males, according to Struve, was the attempted assassination of the president during a rally in Pennsylvania in July. Struve claimed that by concentrating on unconventional channels like podcasts and digital media, Trump was also better able to connect with young males.
Regarding the former president’s appearances on digital media platforms and media aimed at Latino communities, such as town halls and business roundtables that Trump attended in Miami and Las Vegas, Struve stated, “I think it really made all the difference to get to hear from Trump directly.”
Trump joined DeChambeau’s Break 50 challenge for the golfer’s more than 1.6 million YouTube subscribers in addition to spending three hours on Joe Rogan’s number-one podcast.
Four years ago, Trump already had a lead among young white men; this year, he increased that lead. In 2020, significantly less than half of white men under 30 voted for Biden, while about half backed Trump. Trump’s wins among Black men and young Latinos were greater. According to AP VoteCast, his support grew by around 20 percentage points in both groups, and their sentiments against Trump also improved.
Trump wasn’t the only one. In 2024, the percentage of young males who identified as Republicans increased as well, largely matching the three categories’ support for Trump.
William He, founder of Dream For America, a leftist organization that encourages young people to vote and backed Harris’ presidential campaign, stated, “What is most alarming to me is that the election is clear that America has shifted right by a lot.”
Trump presented much of his campaign as an appeal to males who felt denigrated by the nation’s political system, economics, and culture because of his blustery manner and policy platform that focused on a more masculine view of society. Though not as much as their male counterparts, young women also showed a minor bias in favor of the former president.
The number of guys who just did not cast ballots this year is unknown. However, there is no denying that youth culture and the strategies used by political campaigns to appeal to younger people have changed during the past four years.
In order to make the case for the vice president, the Democratic Kamala Harris team recruited a variety of Black and Hispanic leaders and introduced policy agendas specifically designed for Black and Latino men. Many young voters were enthused by her campaign at the start, as seen by memes and the campaign’s adoption of contemporary culture trends like the brat style of pop diva Charli XCX. Democrats wanted to use that energy to help mobilize young people to vote.
According to Santiago Mayer, executive director of Voters of Tomorrow, a leftist organization that engages younger voters, “I believe the majority of young voters simply did not hear the message.” The Harris campaign’s national appeal, according to Mayer, was mainly complicated and focused on economic themes that were difficult for younger voters who weren’t already using political media to understand.
The policies themselves, in my opinion, were also extremely specific and limited, but what we actually required was a straightforward, audacious economic vision, Mayer added.
By attending UFC bouts, football events, and appearances with comedians, musicians, and social media influencers, Trump further embraced pop culture. According to his strategists, the former president’s ability to garner attention and for his comments to go viral was more beneficial to the campaign than traditional media appearances or paid ads.
In addition, Trump’s campaign actively promoted networks of conservative online personalities and platforms, as well as a wider range of podcasts, streaming websites, digital media channels, and meme pages that were receptive to his message.
He said that conservative activist groups like Turning Point USA have a significant influence on internet discourse and that the right has been extremely successful in infiltrating youth political culture both online and on campuses in recent years, radicalizing young people toward extremism. Additionally, Democrats have been conducting their campaigns in a rather antiquated manner. These days, the battlefield is cultural and increasingly online.
Struve warned that Republicans risk losing their widespread support if they fail to improve the lives of Americans. In the post-Trump era, if the GOP loses the president-elect’s charisma and confidence, young men in particular might leave the party.
According to Struve, one group plans to intensify Bienvenido in the upcoming years in order to reinforce and quicken the changes in voting patterns observed this year.
He stated, “We don’t want this to be a one-and-done thing.”
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This report was written by AP polling editor Amelia Thomson-DeVeaux and Associated Press writer Joey Cappelletti in Lansing, Michigan.
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