Key facts
- Fifty-nine percent of white men aged 18-29 voted Democratic, per Tufts University's CIRCLE analysis.
- Trump won 56 percent of Generation Z men in 2024, per AP VoteCast data cited in the report.
- Seventy percent of voters aged 18-29 backed Democrats, a 33-point shift from 2024, per New York Times data.
- The Harvard Youth Poll found 9 percent of young adults say the country is headed in the right direction.
- Adam Pennings of Run Gen Z said the young voters who came to Trump in 2024 left in 2026.
Young voters aged 18 to 29 backed Democrats in the midterm elections held on Tuesday, November 3, 2026, and young men moved with them, according to post-election analysis cited in a report published November 6, 2026.
Fifty-nine percent of white men aged 18 to 29 voted Democratic, according to analysis from Tufts University's Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning and Engagement, known as CIRCLE. President Trump won 56 percent of Generation Z men in 2024, per AP VoteCast data.
Data from The New York Times found that 70 percent of voters aged 18 to 29 cast ballots for Democrats, a 33-point shift from 2024. In Texas, a New York Times exit poll found 74 percent of people aged 18 to 29 voted for James Talarico in the Senate race.
Tyler Daniel, an assistant professor of political science at Roanoke University, said the economy drove young men to Trump and Republicans in 2024 and that most Americans, including Gen Z men, feel the economy is now worse. He described the shift as negative partisanship, voting against rather than for a candidate, and said he had expected young men to sit out the midterms.
Adam Pennings, executive director of Run Gen Z, which recruits and mentors young conservative candidates, said the young voters who came to Trump in 2024 are the same ones who left in 2026. "Gen Z is the cost of living generation, and they voted like it," he said.
The Harvard Youth Poll reported that only 9 percent of young adults say the country is headed in the right direction, and that for the first time more respondents expected to be financially worse than their parents, 27 percent to 25 percent.
Melissa Deckman, CEO of the Public Religion Research Institute, said younger voters, especially younger men, may have been more likely to give Republicans a chance again in 2024, and that Gen Z men mostly voted by looking at their wallets. Leela Strong, a director at CIRCLE, said candidates face a desire to show up with authenticity.