Democrats are going all out to reach young male voters, after the GOP ate into its traditional advantage with young people during the 2024 election.
Strategies have ranged from the party working with influencers to cover the DNC to surprisingly criticisms of leading Democratic candidates and officeholders.
“Young men are looking for someone they can have a beer with – someone relatable,” Democratic strategist Joe Jacobson told Reuters. “Democrats have good policies, but if your messenger has the charisma of watching paint dry, it doesn’t matter.”
After the 2024 election, when the young male vote for Trump rose to 46 percent, up seven points from the previous cycle, many in the Democratic Party went searching for answers.
One early thesis was that the Democrats needed their own version of the wildly successful podcasts from comedians such as Joe Rogan and Theo Von, ostensibly non-political shows, that nonetheless command a large following among young male conservatives. Both shows featured interviews with Trump during the 2024 election.
Others have pointed to the activism style of the slain conservative activist Charlie Kirk, who was known for touring the country, holding rollicking rallies with pyrotechnics, and conducting freewheeling debates with large crowds at universities.
Following Kirk’s shooting death last month, President Trump praised the Turning Point USA founder as someone who understood the “heart of the youth” and helped recruit a new generation of students and young people more broadly into the conservative movement.
The Democrats have had an influencer program since last year, but it seems an already-elected official has so far been the most prominent example of adopting new school political outreach tactics: California Governor Gavin Newsom.
The liberal stalwart has taken to aping Trump’s meme-heavy, often inflammatory style on social media, while hosting a podcast where he interviewed and debated conservative figures, including former Trump advisor Steve Bannon and Kirk himself.
The Democratic search for the young male vote comes amid a larger feeling of disaffection from young people in general.
A 2024 analysis from the firm PRRI found that more young men and women considered themselves independent or “other” than a member of either establishment party.
A spring 2025 youth poll from Harvard found that more than four in 10 Americans under 30 say they are “barely getting by” financially. A mere 15 percent believe the country is heading in the right direction, and fewer than one-third told the poll they approve of President Trump or either party in Congress.
Another key source of tension within the Democratic Party has been the ideological gap between its leadership and the left-leaning contingent of its youth grassroots.
Young people have been far more critical of the Israel-Hamas war, and the U.S. support for it, than leadership in either party, leading to flare-ups including a high-profile public spat between the 2024 Kamala Harris campaign and uncommitted delegates protesting the Democratic stance on the conflict.
Top Democratic leaders have also been somewhat wary to throw their support behind one of their newest national stars. New York mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani is a self-described democratic socialist who earned a surprise win in the Democratic primary thanks to widespread youth support and calls for left-leaning policies such as rent freezes, free buses, and city-run grocery stores.
The ongoing government shutdown has provided Democrats a key test of their pitch to voters, and Democrats have made a point of focusing on the quality of life issue of healthcare, accusing Republicans of raising prices by allowing Affordable Care Act subsidies to expire.
So far, the pitch seems to be working, at least among the general voter base.
A Washington Post poll from the first day of the shutdown found 47 percent of adults in the U.S. blamed Trump and Republicans in Congress for the shutdown, compared to 30 percent who blamed the Democrats.
