Gen Z Voters Reflect Recent Trends, While Charting Their Own Path
Source: Gender On The Ballot
Since Bill Clinton’s election in 1996, a majority of women voters have backed Democratic presidential candidates. In contrast, men have generally favored Republican nominees. How might that gender gap play out this election cycle among the nation’s youngest voters?
In my new book, The Politics of Gen Z, I show that Gen Z women, those born after 1996, engaged at higher levels of politics than Gen Z men during the Trump presidency, including a wide range of both passive forms of politics (such as using social media to follow or post about politics, or discussing politics with friends and family) and active forms (like attending a protest rally or showing up for government meetings). This finding is notable because women have historically engaged in fewer forms of political actions (save voting), at least until the 2010s. Gen Z is the first generation of young women who are actually outperforming Gen Z men. Moreover, Gen Z women are distinct from Gen Z men when it comes to the issues they prioritize and their embrace of liberal political views.
This growing ideological divide has fueled speculation that Gen Z men are becoming more conservative in reaction to the growing embrace of feminist values by Gen Z women. Little wonder, then, that Donald Trump is trying to reach young men by holding interviews with influencers such as Adin Ross and Logan Paul, whose audiences are largely young men. At the same time, Kamala Harris’s appearance on Call Your Daddy, which has millions of young women listeners, is a clear attempt to motivate young women to turnout to vote.
The youth vote (Americans aged 18-29) in the past two election cycles shows that the Trump campaign will likely face a harder challenge in securing the votes of young men than the Harris campaign will face when it comes to young women voters. In 2020, 67% of young women voted for Joe Biden, and a whopping 72% voted for House Democrats in 2022. But it is notable that a majority of young men voters (52%) still voted for Joe Biden, compared with 41% who voted for Trump. The young men’s vote for House Democrats improved in 2022, in which 54% of young men voted for Democrats.
Read here the full article published by Gender On The Ballot on 28 October 2024.
Image by Gender On The Ballot
Since Bill Clinton’s election in 1996, a majority of women voters have backed Democratic presidential candidates. In contrast, men have generally favored Republican nominees. How might that gender gap play out this election cycle among the nation’s youngest voters?
In my new book, The Politics of Gen Z, I show that Gen Z women, those born after 1996, engaged at higher levels of politics than Gen Z men during the Trump presidency, including a wide range of both passive forms of politics (such as using social media to follow or post about politics, or discussing politics with friends and family) and active forms (like attending a protest rally or showing up for government meetings). This finding is notable because women have historically engaged in fewer forms of political actions (save voting), at least until the 2010s. Gen Z is the first generation of young women who are actually outperforming Gen Z men. Moreover, Gen Z women are distinct from Gen Z men when it comes to the issues they prioritize and their embrace of liberal political views.
This growing ideological divide has fueled speculation that Gen Z men are becoming more conservative in reaction to the growing embrace of feminist values by Gen Z women. Little wonder, then, that Donald Trump is trying to reach young men by holding interviews with influencers such as Adin Ross and Logan Paul, whose audiences are largely young men. At the same time, Kamala Harris’s appearance on Call Your Daddy, which has millions of young women listeners, is a clear attempt to motivate young women to turnout to vote.
The youth vote (Americans aged 18-29) in the past two election cycles shows that the Trump campaign will likely face a harder challenge in securing the votes of young men than the Harris campaign will face when it comes to young women voters. In 2020, 67% of young women voted for Joe Biden, and a whopping 72% voted for House Democrats in 2022. But it is notable that a majority of young men voters (52%) still voted for Joe Biden, compared with 41% who voted for Trump. The young men’s vote for House Democrats improved in 2022, in which 54% of young men voted for Democrats.
Read here the full article published by Gender On The Ballot on 28 October 2024.
Image by Gender On The Ballot