Young Americans who backed President Trump two years ago now say they regret that choice and plan to vote Democratic or not at all. For Remi Martinez, the deportations are the problem. For Michael Johnson, a 26-year-old sales representative in Des Moines, it is the economy, including rising gas prices and housing costs. Suzanna Bridges points to the Epstein files and what she sees as misogyny in the Trump administration's culture.
New York Times/Siena University polling shows a sharp shift. In 2024, 55 percent of young men supported Mr. Trump, a dramatic departure from past elections when young Americans largely favored Democrats. Democrats now hold a slim, one-percentage-point advantage with young men, a group that remains politically up for grabs, with about 10 percent still undecided. Among young women, support for the Republican Party has fallen to just 13 percent, and Democrats hold a lead of nearly 70 percentage points with the group.
Marcos Jimenez, a 21-year-old studying to be a math teacher in Oakville, Calif., voted for Mr. Trump on economic promises but says he got a war and spiraling costs instead. Mr. Johnson, an immigrant from Liberia, said he persuaded 15 relatives to vote Republican but now works two jobs to get by. Mr. Martinez, a Hispanic dispatcher in western Kansas, said the deportations have left his town of Garden City feeling "shut down."
The defections extend beyond the youngest voters. Voters aged 30 to 44 have also shifted, moving from a 17-point advantage for Mr. Trump among men of that age to a six-point advantage for Democrats. Many of these voters say they are no longer willing to back the party that once earned their support.
Source: New York Times Top Stories · Summarized by HeadlinesBriefing