Exit polling shows how Generation Z shifted to the right for now-President-elect Donald Trump in the 2024 presidential election.
While young voters still favor Democrats, Trump made significant gains with the demographic between 2020 and 2024, a Cygnal poll found.
The survey found that Gen Z (people born between 1997 and 2012) shifted right from favoring Joe Biden in 2020 by 24 points to favoring Kamala Harris by 16 points in 2024.
Gen Z’s rightward shift is most significantly seen among men under the age of 30, who voted for Trump over Harris by ten points, the survey found.
The survey also found that Gen X “swung the hardest right.” The demographic, which includes people born between 1965 and 1980, was R+1 in 2020 and moved to R+13 for Trump in 2024.
“We found this was very much a realignment election, driven by changes in key generational and racial groups,” Cygnal wrote of the results. “The Republican Party is increasingly multi-racial and working class, with strong support among married adults; the Democratic Party is increasingly a coalition of college-educated and older voters.”
Other polling after the election found that 40 percent of women under 30 years old voted for Trump. CNN exit polls showed Harris had an eight-point lead with women voters. However, that number was almost half what President Joe Biden (D) gained in 2020.
Harris tried to win their votes with her appearance on the Call Her Daddy podcast and endorsements from celebrities such as Taylor Swift and Beyoncé. However, her efforts were not enough. Her campaign focused on abortion, claiming a Trump presidency would put their so-called “reproductive rights” in danger.
Cornell University professor Sabrina Karim told AFP, “I think there were high expectations going into the election about how women would vote.”
“But it is always important to remember that women are not a monolithic group,” she said, adding that “their concerns are multi-faceted.”
There has been much speculation on what, specifically, drew younger voters to the Trump-Vance ticket this time around — from Trump choosing Sen. JD Vance (R-OH), a millennial, as his running mate to the campaign’s embrace of alternative media, attracting younger audiences with appearances on popular podcasts such as Theo Von’s and, of course, Joe Rogan’s.
Several young voters spoke to the New York Times, revealing why they decided to take the leap for Trump.
One 25-year-old woman named McLane, 25, said she “shocked” herself and voted for Trump. She, like the others, pointed to Trump choosing JD Vance.
“I was so impressed by JD Vance, the way he carried himself and how normal he appeared,” she said, also citing the left’s war on women and pointing to an ad from the Trump campaign that stuck with her.
“I think I became radicalized on the men and women’s sports issue. The ad that said, ‘Kamala represents they/them. Trump represents you,’ that was so compelling,” she said, adding, “While Trump is deranged, he represented normalcy somehow to me.”
Another young voter, a 22-year-old named Jack from New York, said Trump’s interview with Rogan was “huge” for him.
“Trump enthusiastically said yes to a three-hour, open, honest conversation with Joe Rogan, who was a former Bernie bro,” he remarked. “ I think it’s very telling about which candidate is authentic and which candidate is not.”
The Trump voter named Abigail also noted that the media had become “so corrupted in their cause against Trump,” expressing disgust with the media’s lies.
One Virginia woman named Lillian, 27, said the “nail in the coffin” for her was President Joe Biden calling Trump supporters garbage “and then the White House moved to change the record officially.”
“That really bothered me,” she said. “That made me really want to rally against them.”
Cygnal’s exit poll was conducted November 5, 2024, with 9,000 general election voters. It has a margin of error of ±0.99 percentage points.
Hannah Knudsen contributed to this report.
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