On Nov. 5, President-elect Donald Trump decisively won the 2024 presidential election. Whether or not Trump should have won is an entirely different story, but there were many trends from this presidential election that were not quite expected.
Perhaps the most intriguing one is whether or not there was a shift in young American voters’ thinking and ideologies toward the Republican Party.
In 2020, President Joe Biden won over young voters, classified as ages 18 to 34, by 25% more than Trump, securing 65% of young women and 56% of young men voters. This clearly illustrates the trend of younger demographics leaning towards the left of the political aisle, as we have seen in countless elections before 2020.
Meanwhile in 2024, Harris only won young voters by 6% more than Trump. Diving deeper into these statistics, Harris won young women with 58% to Trump’s 41%, 7% less than Biden did in 2020.
Young men, on the other hand, are a different story. In 2020 they handed Biden an easy majority with 56% of the vote while this cycle handing Trump the same 56%, an absolutely substantial shift with consequential effects.
The question facing us today is why, after being seen as solidly Democratic, did young voters of both genders turn towards the GOP and its leading candidate?
To answer this question, we need to address that the economy was shown to be the most important issue to young voters, per NBC News exit polls. Under the Biden-Harris administration, young Americans have felt the cost of inflation caused by reckless government spending and the COVID-19 pandemic. Rather than addressing these issues at their root cause, Harris has run a campaign of ambiguity that has been light on policy and instead mostly focused on hope for the future and rhetoric against Trump — eerily similar to Biden’s 2020 campaign.
This campaign strategy was not effective due to young Americans wanting answers on how a Harris administration would improve our economy both now and into the future, especially as these young voters enter the workforce.
“Young people are not stupid, contrary to claims from a particular candidate, and we can see what’s going on in the world,” said Trenton Buffenbarger, president of the Young Americans for Freedom chapter at the University. “Young people see that their dollar doesn’t get as far, we see the news of crime around the country faster than ever and it seems that more of us this time voted for what we thought would fix it.”
In the digital age, nothing goes unnoticed. Joe Rogan has seen massive success capturing a candid, if at times bizarre, version of Trump in podcast form that has now reached an audience of nearly 50 million people. Astute conservative influencers like Brilyn Hollyhand, who is local to Tuscaloosa, have been quick to point out the flaws in the Harris campaign while also highlighting the perceived benefits of another Trump administration on the economy and geopolitics.
Many young Americans shifted towards Trump not just because of his charisma or divisive rhetoric, which has been a constant since his initial political debut in 2016, but mainly because of how they perceived his record and policy positions. During his time in office, the country was in a prosperous position with a growing economy, low inflation and low unemployment. The inflation rate especially is a stark contrast, as when Trump left office in January of 2021 it was sitting at 1.4% and yet in June of 22 it peaked at 9.1%.
With these successes and more of a feeling of prosperity, many young voters were willing to turn away from “A New Way Forward” and towards “Make America Great Again.” What will happen with this unprecedented victory across the country remains to be seen.
