Although young voters are usually reliable supporters of the Democratic Party, Generation Z is turning toward the Republicans, according to the latest Yale Youth Poll.
Gen Z appears to be divided mainly between how they experienced the COVID-19 pandemic, as there is an 18-point gap between younger and older members of the group.
Those between ages 22 and 29 favor Democrats by 6.4 points, while those in the 18-21 group support the Republican Party by 11.7 points.
Youth political analyst Rachel Janfaza broke Gen Z down between those who graduated before the COVID-19 pandemic and those who were in high school or middle school during that time, with the latter appearing to view MAGA as countercultural and more appealing, according to PM.
Janfaza told Axios that the younger part of the generation “got really tired of being told what they could or could not do and what they could or could not say.”
Richard Reeves of the American Institute for Boys and Men added that “Republicans managed to communicate, ‘We like men, and we like the things men like,’ whether that’s UFC or whatever. And sometimes in politics, making people feel like you like them is kind of important.”
Reeves pointed out that “Democrats didn’t do any of those things. They didn’t say, ‘We like you, we like the things you like.’ In fact, sometimes there’s even tendencies to say, ‘We don’t like the things you like, and we’re not sure we like you.'”
While young men are the most noticeable in this trend, young women are also increasingly heading toward the GOP, according to the poll.
For example, in the last presidential election, 41% of women ages 18 to 29 voted for Donald Trump, up from 33% four years earlier. Both young men and women have expressed concerns over the Democratic Party’s handling of such issues as gender roles and free speech.
The Yale Youth Poll surveyed an online sample of 4,100 registered voters from April 1-3, with an under-30 oversample of 2,025. The survey’s post-weighting 95% CI margin of error is ±1.8 percentage points for the youth sample.
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