We asked young men why they voted for Donald Trump: this is what they said

Nic Sumners, a 21-year-old cosmetic car repairman from Virginia, says he’s pro-choice. But when he voted in the 2024 presidential electionhe did that for Donald Trump.

Despite his personal beliefs, he says Trump talks about the American people in a way that appeals to him, without – in his view – blaming him for his gender and sexual orientation.

“I’m a straight white man, and I feel like we take the blame for a lot of things,” Sumners says.

“Of course there are bad guys,” he adds, emphasizing that he is not one of them just because he voted for Trump. But what appealed to him about Donald Trump was that “his campaign didn’t come after us. He emphasized the American people, that’s us too. It doesn’t matter what color you are, how you identify yourself. Because I wasn’t excluded, I resonated with it.”

The economy also played a role: Sumner’s mother lost her home during Joe Biden’s presidency (although he says she actually lived on Kamala Harris), and he struggles to pay his own rent. He appreciates Trump’s “emphasis on the economy and rebuilding America.”

But one of the biggest problems for him is the way men in general are seen as inherently bad people because of their politics or their gender.

“It is a sensitive subject,” he admits. ‘The people I talked to voted because Harris keeps saying that we’re racist, that we’re misogynistic, that we’re, you know, transphobic. And it’s like they don’t understand that most people aren’t like that. Of course there are people from the fringes who are, but most people just want to live and not worry about swearing.”

And so Sumners became one of the 55% of young male voters between the ages of 18 and 29 who voted for Trump this election. A huge jump from 2020, when 41% of 18-29 year old men supported him. It also stands in stark contrast to young women, with 58% of them supporting Harris.

So why did so many men move to the right in the 2024 election? Much has been said about Trump’s embrace of masculinity during his campaign — which saw him traverse the podcast world with often provocative, highly popular personalities like Adin Ross, influencer and wrestler Logan Paul, Flagrant’s Andrew Schulz and, of course, Joe Rogan. And then there’s the lasting image of 71-year-old former WWE wrestler Hulk Hogan taking off his shirt at the Republican National Convention.

Others have suggested that because Trump has proudly done so ownership taken over for overthrowing Roe v. Wade (and as a result, curbs are being reinforced across the country reproductive freedom), young male voters may not care about women’s rights at all. This line of thinking has been encouraged by controversial figures such as far-right pundits proud incel Nick Fuentes, who celebrated Trump’s victory with wildly attacking looks “Your body, my choice.”

But honestly, that’s not the position of the majority of young men I’ve spoken to — even if they proudly voted for Trump. Many young men say they voted for the former president not because they are anti-choice, anti-human rights, or even so pro-masculinity, but because they are tired of feeling sorry for the former president. being a man.

I’ve interviewed young men who echo Sumners’ concerns about what he sees as an exaggerated fixation on gender from the left. While it’s difficult, they say, to point out policies that are explicitly anti-human, they claim they feel uncomfortable being who they are. “I feel like there’s a cultural frustration among young men because they’re not allowed to be young men,” says 26-year-old Benji Backer from Arizona. “That probably went too far. No one tells women they can’t be women.”

Backer, author of The conservative environmentalist, says he sees growing support for Trump in his community — including among people who are also concerned about left-wing social issues like access to reproductive health care. He points to the fact that Arizona as a state voted both to protect abortion and for Trump: “Specifically young people are trying to make it, trying to make our way in the world, get stable jobs and incomes, survive. without living with parents.”

While young women may struggle to understand the views of these young men—especially when so many basic rights are under attack and women’s health care has already been fatally compromised in states with abortion bans—many young men say their focus is more on equal economic opportunity then lies on abortion.

Coby

In some cities across the country it is young women earn more money than men (although men still earn more in the vast majority). They are go to university at higher rates. And so are single women buy houses at higher rates than single men. So some statements about their role in enabling patriarchy no longer resonate with today’s youngest men, some of whom say they have no firsthand experience with that world order.

“We really feel guilty for things we had no control over,” says Backer, adding that he has tried to keep pay equal within his company. “I’ve always made that a priority in everything I do, and that’s why it doesn’t feel good to feel like I’m being blamed. I get told all the time, ‘You’re a white man, sit down and wait your turn,’ and it’s like, ‘Well, I can’t change the fact that I’m white, I can’t change the fact . that I am a man, I cannot change the fact that people made bad decisions decades or centuries ago.” All I can do is do what I can do now. And what I do now is treat people as fairly as possible, because I firmly believe in that.”

For Coby, a 19-year-old student at the University of Michigan, it was a combination of identity politics issues and economics that drew him to Trump. He was in high school during the 2020 election, and although he grew up Republican and supported Trump before he could vote, he says he started learning more about politics during the COVID-19 pandemic. Now, he says, he is prioritizing economic growth, trying to end wars, and “common sense policies,” adding that he echoes Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s position. about junk food and was happy when Trump brought him into his job: ‘Many young boys are now more concerned with health than ever. There is a whole wave about rejecting processed foods.”

But Coby, who asked to be identified only by his first name, highlights the way men are viewed as oppressors by some on the left as one of the reasons he sees men leaning politically right. “If you say to a young white man, ‘Hey, you are an oppressor, and because you are white, you have privileges that your black and Hispanic peers did not have, and you are inherently to blame, or You are guilty of that, and that’s what a lot of leftists and Democrats are saying: they’re going to reject that,” he says. “We are not racist; we are not misogynistic. We’re just normal people, and we (are) friends with everyone. We are tired of hearing a lot of this nonsense from the far left.”

For him, these concerns outweigh issues like abortion rights – even though Coby is in favor of freedom of choice. But “because Trump got rid of it Roe v. Wade,he says the issue was not a priority for him when he cast his vote in Michigan. “Over the past four years, the Biden administration has essentially been unable to do anything to protect abortion rights federally.” In his opinion: “That issue has been more or less resolved. It was given to the states.”

Many young men I spoke to, like Coby, cared about abortion, but also felt that this was not the case their issue — even those, like 19-year-old Alex Georges, of Pennsylvania, who planned to vote for Harris. “Men obviously have a say in abortion. But women are the ones who… it’s their body.”

A problem that many men felt was However, important to them was the ability to speak freely without being excluded because of views that do not correspond to those of their peers. Coby says he feels this most on campus. Coby says students and professors expressed their sadness about the election results last week. “I wouldn’t have the courage to raise my hand and say, ‘Hey, no, I’m happy with the election results,’” he says, adding: “It’s very difficult for Republicans to do anything to say. I’m afraid I’ll get a bad reputation with a professor.”

This can lead to resentment among students like Coby. “It’s very isolating. I feel like it creates a sense of moral superiority. When it comes to people in academia, they have a sense of superiority for who they vote for and what they value. And if you’re against that, they look down on you a bit.

As provocative as this may be for many women, many of the young men I’ve met over the past year have told me they feel marginalized, especially by the left. Joe Mitchell, 27, from Iowa, tells me, “I think young men have felt oppressed to some extent.”

Mitchell started an organization called Run GenZ, which recruits and trains young conservatives to run for public office across the country. He also, like many of his colleagues, voted for Trump.

“Young men have begun to reject some of the ideology of the ‘woke’ norms that have been created for them,” he says. “The Trump campaign specifically targeted that demographic and courted them quite a bit. There was already a great feeling of young men wanting to find a party or people who would help them embrace it.”

Originally published on Glamour