FROM NBC NEWS: Democrats were knocked back on their heels in 2024 by the party’s erosion of support among young men. They were gratified to see improvement with that group in key elections earlier this month.
In between, the party has been on a mission to stop its erosion among young voters, launching research efforts, piloting different styles of communication and elevating new voices. And it has already come to one important conclusion, according to interviews in October with a range of people on the left working on the issue: The solution to Democrats’ struggle to appeal to young men won’t come from one national figure who will instantly, magically draw them in.
But while Democrats may not have one leading figure they can rely on to recruit young male voters, one overarching belief is that they do have popular policies that — if communicated well and in the right spaces — could put the party on a path to victory with young voters.
“If not Trump, then who?” Amanda Litman, the founder and executive director of Run for Something, a group that recruits young Democratic candidates for downballot races, told NBC News. “And the question for the Democratic Party that I think is one of the challenges we have right now is, we don’t have a great answer for that.”
“I don’t think that there is a lack of popularity with Democratic policies. It’s a lack of the ability to appropriately communicate those policies in a way that actually breaks through and resonates with these voters, right?” Danielle Butterfield, the executive director of Priorities USA, told NBC News. “We know that we are always going to be the party that has a more favorable, popular stance on health care and health care costs. The question is, do voters know that, and are we talking about it in places where they’re actually spending time?”
Democrats see a group of podcasts often dubbed the “manosphere” as the place to reach lung men. Litman said they make “you feel like you’re not alone.”
“It’s funny, often very funny. It’s a little subversive or often very subversive. It feels intimate. You get to know the hosts over the course of hours and hours of conversation: their lives and their, their personalities and their quirks, and I think that is really special. Like, the parasocial relationship can be very powerful,” she added.
After years of telling men how they should act and feel, now Democrats are wading in to their territory to relearn how to talk to them. Time will tell if that will work out.
READ MORE AT NBC NEWS
