What’s driving the massive gender split between America’s youngest voters?
The political gender gap among young Americans is widening at an alarming rate. If the Republican Party wants to avoid losing close, winnable elections, it must figure out why its message is repulsing young women and fix it.
In 2020, young voters supported Democrats at a similar wide margin as they did in 2008. But the real jolt came in 2024. Facing a historically inept candidate, amid a historically inept Democrat administration, President Donald Trump made understandable, large gains with Gen Z men.
But Gen Z women barely budged.
Men ages 18–29 made a 15-point swing to Trump. Young women, meanwhile, only moved eight points toward him. This turned young voters’ previous eight-point gender gap into a 15-point chasm.
By contrast, the overall gender gap in 2024 shrunk to 10 points from 2020’s 11 points.
Many blamed the young gender gap explosion on Trump’s appearances on male-centric podcasts in the online “manosphere.” But a newly released poll from the League of American Workers (LAW), coupled with last week’s elections, show 2024 was no fluke.
In the LAW poll, Trump holds a 38-percent approval rate with men, ages 18–25, versus a 24 percent approval rate with young women.
Democrats’ cataclysmic victories last week show this problem is getting worse for Republicans at the ballot box. Pollster Will Jordan aptly noted Democrats are “approaching Assad margins” with young women, referring to deposed Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad’s past election wins.
Jacob Grandstaff 