Young voters tilt towards Trump amid Democratic missteps

After Donald Trump's decisive victory in the U.S. presidential election, traditional and social media have been inundated with analyses of the reasons behind this outcome. Many voices attempt to find a single cause for the Democrats' defeat or to blame a particular group of people. Thus, Trump’s victory is attributed to, among others, misogynists, racists, the Latino minority, Black men, or those voting for candidates other than Harris or Trump.

One of the groups labeled as "responsible" for Trump's victory is young Americans, especially men. As with many other analyses of this type, conclusions are often drawn without sufficient evidence. Most voters aged 18-29 voted for Kamala Harris. Donald Trump gained the most support from the 45-64 age group, which was the most represented among those who cast their votes.

However, indeed, support for Trump among voters aged 18-29 has increased significantly since the last elections in 2020, particularly among young men. Young people increasingly derive their understanding of the world, including politics, from social media. Meanwhile, platforms like Elon Musk’s X (formerly Twitter) and most YouTubers and streamers discussing political topics present a right-wing worldview. Among the 10 most popular streams on election night, 9 had a right-wing tone. The only exception was Hasan Piker (HasanAbi), who has been commenting on the American political scene from a progressive viewpoint for years.

The right-wing nature of social media is not the sole reason for the Republicans’ success. There are voices from within the Democratic Party itself suggesting that Trump’s victory should be considered in the context of the Democrats’ failure. Kamala Harris’s campaign was targeted at voters whom many commentators describe as "imagined," meaning moderate Republicans who see Trump as a dangerous figure. The validity of the idea that this was a misguided strategy is supported by the fact that the same percentage of registered Republicans (94 percent) voted for the billionaire as in 2020. Meanwhile, the percentage of Republicans voting for someone from the Democratic camp fell from 6 to 5 percent.

A campaign aimed at "moderately conservative" voters led to the marginalization of the truly existing, progressive wing of the Democrats. Incredibly popular figures like Bernie Sanders and the media-savvy Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez were kept in the background. As the campaign progressed, vice-presidential candidate Tim Walz, who managed to implement many popular progressive reforms in Minnesota, where he serves as a senator, was also sidelined. His selection as Harris’s campaign partner was one of the reasons for the initial enthusiasm that allowed the vice president to catch up to Trump in the polls, which were very unfavorable for the Democrats when Joe Biden was still his opponent.

In a one-hour Instagram live on November 6, Ocasio-Cortez explained what she sees as the problems of the Democratic Party. The politician believes her party is disconnected from its natural voting base, the working class. The United States is a country of enormous social inequalities. Inflation, which also affected other countries after the pandemic, put additional pressure on people already struggling to make ends meet. Although Biden eventually reduced inflation to a normal level, it did not lower prices but only slowed their increase.

According to Ocasio-Cortez, the Democrats' lack of proposals for people in difficult economic situations (e.g., raising the minimum wage) gives them no reason to vote for this party. Donald Trump, on the other hand, exploited their frustration. Although he did not promise any constructive changes, he presented immigrants as a "scapegoat" who could be blamed for the problems of American workers.

Before being elected to the House of Representatives, Ocasio-Cortez worked as a waitress, so she knows the working class's situation firsthand. She is not the only voice attributing the Democrats’ electoral defeat to their lack of offerings for the electorate. Senator Bernie Sanders echoes her sentiment, stating on Instagram: "It should come as no great surprise that a Democratic Party which has abandoned working class people would find that the working class has abandoned them. While the Democratic leadership defends the status quo, the American people are angry and want change. And they’re right."

Why don’t Democrats have proposals for the working class? Ocasio-Cortez reminded that in the United States, elections are won with the money of big businesses. These are the last people interested in improving the economic situation of workers. The politician emphasized that another policy is possible, citing her own career as an example. She believes that if the Democratic Party does not become independent from corporate sponsors, it will not be able to regain the votes of the working class, which are decisive in U.S. elections.