WASHINGTON (AP) — For years, Pat Verhaeghe did not have a high opinion of Donald Trump as a leader.
Then Verhaeghe started seeing more of Trump’s campaign speeches online and his appearances at sporting events.
There was even a pairing of the former president with Bryson DeChambeau as part of the professional golfer’s YouTube channel series to shoot a round of golf under 50 while chatting with his partner.
“I’m sorry to say this, but a while ago I thought he was an idiot and that he wouldn’t be a good president,” the 18-year-old first-time voter said. “I think he’s a great guy now.”
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Verhaeghe is not alone among his friends in the Detroit suburbs or young men across America. Although much of the electorate shifted to the right to varying degrees in 2024, young men were among the groups that turned sharply towards Trump.
More than half of men under the age of thirty supported Trump, according to AP VoteCast, a survey of more than 120,000 voters, while Democrat Joe Biden had won a similar share of this group four years earlier. White men under 30 were firmly in Trump’s camp this year — about six in 10 voted for Trump — while young Latino men were split between the two candidates. Most black men under 30 supported Democrat Kamala Harris, but about a third backed Trump.
Young Latino men’s views of the Democratic Party were much more negative than in 2020, while young Black men’s views of the party did not really change. About 6 in 10 Latino men under the age of 30 had somewhat or very positive views of Democrats in 2020, dropping to about 4 in 10 this year. On the other hand, about two-thirds of young black men had this year a positive view of the Democrats, which was almost identical to how they saw the party four years ago.
“Young Hispanic men, and really young men in general, want to feel valued,” said Rafael Struve, deputy communications director of Bienvenido, a conservative group focused on reaching young Hispanic voters for Republicans this year. “They are looking for someone who will fight for them, who will see their potential and not just their struggles.”
Struve cited the attempted assassination of Trump at a July rally in Pennsylvania as one of the catalyzing moments for Trump’s image among many young men. Trump, Struve said, was also able to reach young men more effectively by focusing on non-traditional platforms such as podcasts and digital media channels.
“Hearing from Trump directly, I think, has really made a difference,” Struve said of the former president’s appearances on digital media platforms and outlets focused on Latino communities, such as town halls and business roundtables Trump attended in Las Vegas and Miami .
Not only did Trump spend three hours on Joe Rogan’s podcast, but he also took on DeChambeau’s “Break 50” challenge for the golfer’s more than 1.6 million YouTube subscribers.
Trump already had a lead among young white men four years ago, although he widened the gap this year. About half of white men under 30 supported Trump in 2020, and just under half supported Biden. Trump’s gains among young Latino and black men were larger. His support among both groups increased by about 20 percentage points, according to AP VoteCast — and their feelings toward Trump warmed, too.
It wasn’t just Trump. The share of young men identifying as Republicans in 2024 also rose, largely in line with support for Trump in all three groups.
“What’s most alarming to me is that the election clearly shows that America has shifted a lot to the right,” said William He, founder of Dream For America, a liberal group working to win over young voters and boost the presidential bid van Harris supports.
With his bombastic attitude and a policy agenda focused on a more macho understanding of culture, Trump presented much of his campaign as a pitch to men who felt slighted by the country’s economy, culture and political system. Young women also turned somewhat to the former president, but not to the extent that their male counterparts did.
It is unclear how many men simply did not vote this year. But there’s no doubt that the past four years have brought changes to youth culture and the way political campaigns sought to reach younger voters.
Democrat Kamala Harris’ campaign introduced policy agendas tailored to Black and Latino men, and the campaign enlisted a range of leaders in Black and Hispanic communities to advocate for the vice president. Her campaign began with a wave of enthusiasm from many young voters, embodied in memes and the embrace of pop culture trends such as pop star Charli XCX’s “snot” aesthetic. Democrats hoped to channel that energy into their efforts to mobilize voters.
“I think most young voters just haven’t heard the message,” said Santiago Mayer, executive director of Voters of Tomorrow, a liberal group that engages younger voters. Mayer said the Harris campaign’s pitch to the country was “largely convoluted” and focused on economic messages that he said could not be easily conveyed to younger voters who were not yet turning to political media.
“And I think the policy itself was also very narrow and targeted, when what we really needed was a simple, bold economic vision,” Mayer said.
Trump also embraced pop culture, appearing at UFC fights and football games and alongside comedians, music stars and social media influencers. His strategists believed that the former president’s ability to attract attention and make his comments go viral did more for the campaign than paid advertising or traditional media appearances.
Trump’s campaign also heavily cultivated networks of conservative online platforms and personalities who supported him, while also tapping into a broader universe of podcasts, streaming sites, digital media outlets and meme pages open to listening to him.
“The right has been enormously successful in recent years at infiltrating youth political culture online and on campus, radicalizing young people toward extremism,” said He, who cited conservative activist groups like Turning Point USA as having an outsized impact on the internet. conversation. “And the Democrats campaigned in a very old-fashioned way. The battlefield today is cultural and increasingly on the Internet.”
Republicans could lose their broad support if they fail to improve the lives of Americans, Struve warned. Young men in particular may drift away from the party in a post-Trump era if the party loses the authenticity and bravado of the newly elected president.
Bienvenido will double for one group in the coming years to consolidate and accelerate the shifts in voting patterns we’ve seen this year, Struve said.
“We don’t want this to be a one-time thing,” he said.
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Associated Press writer Joey Cappelletti in Lansing, Michigan, and AP Polls Editor Amelia Thomson-DeVeaux contributed to this report.
