MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
Democrats have a problem with young men. Early exit polling from last week's election suggests that young male voters gravitated to Republicans or at least to Donald Trump. It's a trend that's been in the works for a while now. Men, overall, especially white men, have been more likely to vote Republican since 1980. But the apparent shift to the right among young men has big implications for future elections. So let's talk about what Republicans have been saying to men that appeals, and we'll ask if it's what Democrats have been saying or not saying that is turning young men off. Joining us to talk about this is Aaron Smith. He's the co-founder of the Young Men Research Initiative. Welcome.
AARON SMITH: Thanks for having me.
MARTIN: And John Della Volpe is director of polling at the Harvard Kennedy School Institute of Politics, where he focuses on young voters. John Della Volpe, welcome to you as well.
JOHN DELLA VOLPE: Great to be with you. Thank you.
MARTIN: So, John, let me start with you. Did Republicans offer more appealing policies to young men, or is it something else?
DELLA VOLPE: Complex question. I believe it is based more on the persona and not the policy, which is what is attracting this kind of emerging generation to disassociate with the Democratic Party and find themselves open to Donald Trump, and we certainly saw that play out in last week's election. When I think about the young voter today, we need to start with the fact that they were in, you know, middle school, sometimes elementary or early high school, when they were first introduced to Donald Trump. And from that first moment, Michel, they viewed him more of an anti-hero than a villain.
MARTIN: Aaron Smith, you founded a research initiative focused on young male voters. So obviously, the first thing I want to ask you is how do you answer that question? But I also want to know what got you interested in this question.
SMITH: Yeah. So first off, what we see from the data is the economy, inflation, immigration were the top issues for young men. Forty-seven percent said the economy. That's very similar to other demographics. So this group wanted change. They were dissatisfied with the status quo. What got me interested was both the trends that we're seeing in the U.S. in terms of the growing gender gap, the divide between young men and young women, but also the global phenomenon. This is not specific to the United States or to Trump. This is something that we're seeing happening all across the world, and it's concerning. It's not good for the world, in my opinion, to have, you know, men and women so divided on their politics, on their lives, on what they care about. And so we wanted to better understand what was really driving that.
MARTIN: And so - and talk a little bit more on the question I asked John earlier, which is that what is it that attracted young men to Trump? Was it policies per se, or was there something else in your view?
SMITH: Young men are largely progressive across a range of issues. Close to 70% support abortion rights. They're actually one of the most pro-union groups in the whole country, but they said that their top issues were the economy, inflation and immigration, and I think we should take them on - at their word, and they were looking for change. That said, this is a group that's diverse, that has complex views. It would be a mistake to put them in a box or write them off. I think of them as a true swing group. This is a group that Joe Biden won. He got 7 million votes from young men in 2020, and now Donald Trump has won. And it's a group that can swing back and forth based on how they're feeling about the key issues in the campaign.
MARTIN: What I'm curious about, though, and maybe, John, this is a sort of question for you, is that, you know, women also said that they were concerned about the economy. They were also concerned about reproductive rights. But whatever the Democratic Party was saying or doing, whatever the Democratic candidates were saying or doing didn't seem to have had as much appeal to them. And so I'm just curious. It's, like, you could say that Trump overperformed among young men, but the Harris campaign underperformed among young women. And I'm just sort of curious about that since you poll among both.
DELLA VOLPE: Sure. I believe when Donald Trump lost the last election, he needed to find ways to kind of expand his base. And, you know, having reversed Roe, there were probably little upside he saw in women. He made a decision and then invested tens of millions of dollars to connect with young men. There are some trends that he's clearly tapping into. Young men, Michel, are lonelier than ever. Seventy-five percent or so say they are regularly stressed out about the state of the world around them.
They are twice as likely to be single than women their age. They are less likely to enroll in college or less likely to be in the workforce compared to younger men of previous generations. So this is a cohort that were searching for something to kind of connect them to something bigger. And I think Donald Trump's ability to extend his messaging in appeal beyond the traditional politics into the culture and the places where younger men were spending their time really paid off, and I question the degree to which Democrats counter-programmed.
SMITH: Can I add one quick thing?
MARTIN: Yeah.
SMITH: It's important to say this can't be a zero-sum game. So we know there are many ways in which women have not achieved true equality, from the pay gap to abortion to the fact that we still have not had a woman president. At the same time, we know many young men are struggling in education, in the economy and we need to address that.
MARTIN: If you were advising the Democrats, what's the one, two or three messages or policies that you would start working on today to get them back on track? John, do you want to go first?
DELLA VOLPE: Sure. My advice to Democrats is simple. It's less about messaging today. It's more about listening. They need to invest immediately in getting into the places where they failed to deliver relative to 2020. Specifically, younger men. Start by listening. Showing up is more than half the battle in politics. And when they listen, they will find young men who are concerned about one day becoming homeless because of the cost of housing. They're concerned about one day not being able to have a family because of their economic insecurity. They're concerned that one day, they may have to go to war because the world seems on fire to them. It's not about words. It's not about messaging. Right now, it needs to be about listening.
MARTIN: Aaron, what do you say?
SMITH: I think John nailed it. I think that's - the starting point is listening and being present in the spaces where young men are getting their information and their news. At the same time, we have to take young men at their word - the economy, inflation, those are the core issues. How does increasing the minimum wage, how is that going to help young men? How does increasing access to college, how is that going to help young men? How does supporting apprenticeships and other pathways into the middle class? How is that going to help young men? If we can talk about it that way, we'll be successful with that group.
MARTIN: That's Aaron Smith. He's the co-founder of the Young Men Research Initiative, and John Della Volpe is director of polling at the Harvard Kennedy School Institute of Politics, where he focuses on young voters. Aaron Smith, John Della Volpe, thank you both so much for talking with us.
DELLA VOLPE: Thank you.
(SOUNDBITE OF MIZLO'S "AT EASE") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
