The Young Voters of Pennsylvania
We are seeing a dramatic realignment of political parties and values. Democrats now cater to fringe communities, females, coastal elites, and the Ivy League-educated. Republicans now appeal to the working class, males, middle America, and the non-college-educated.
Our elected leaders failed us during the pandemic. Millions of Generation X, Millennial, and Generation Z Americans are still angry about mandates, lockdowns, and the authoritarian way that the Biden administration denied them things such as high school and college graduation ceremonies, on-campus classes, athletic competitions, and daily activities like going to a restaurant, a gym, or a church. Instead, they were forced to socialize via virtual technology.
The final straw may have come this past summer. Joe Biden dropped out of the presidential race, Kamala Harris was installed as the Democratic nominee, and vice presidential nominee Tim Walz and First Gentlemen Doug Emhoff dispensed DNC talking points, lecturing audiences about “new masculinity” versus “toxic masculinity.” This pitch likely sealed Democrats’ fate with young male voters. Young people, especially men, don’t like to have restrictions placed on them. They rebel against authority. That’s what happened in 2024, after four years in which elected officials had imposed their will on the American public. Millions of men who had had enough of it pulled the lever for Donald Trump and the Republican Party.
The data tend to confirm these beliefs. Consider the state of Pennsylvania. According to CNN exit polling, Trump performed well with men across age groups. Among men 18 to 29, Trump secured 58 percent of the vote. Among men 30 to 44, he carried 52 percent. Sixty percent of Generation X men in the Keystone State voted for Trump. Lastly, the over-65 male demographic supported Trump resoundingly, 62 percent to 38 percent.
In the fallout from the election, outlets such as the AP have written about how “Young Men Swung to the Right for Trump after a campaign dominated by Masculine Appeals.” The New York Times pontificated on how “For these 20-somethings, Trump is making it sexy to be a Republican.” Vanity Fair declared that young men were becoming “MAGA-Fied!”
The writing is on the wall for the Democratic Party. There’s no masculine solution in sight. The party’s most notable national figures are California governor Gavin Newsom, Pennsylvania governor Josh Shapiro, Illinois governor J. B. Pritzker, and Pennsylvania senator John Fetterman. I don’t see any of these cracking the code on MAGA and male voters.
Men in Pennsylvania and around the country want cash in their pockets, law and order, and Second Amendment rights. They want to protect themselves, their property, and their nation with secure borders. They want to be able to display masculinity, not be ridiculed for it. They want freedom. They believe in two sexes. They largely want what Donald Trump ran on, which happens to be what the legacy media and the Democratic Party vilified them for believing in.
At this point, Democrats may have lost an electoral hold among generations of men. In Pennsylvania, at least, I don’t see that dynamic changing anytime soon.
