WASHINGTON – Andy Soma, 24, has never considered himself a member of either major political party. He had also skipped every election since becoming eligible to vote. But this year, frustrated by the economy and President Donald Trump’s war with Iran, he cast his midterm ballot for Roy Cooper, the North Carolina Democrat who is headed to the Senate.
“I would describe it as the first time that I’ve truly felt the need to vote,” said Soma, a mathematics Ph.D. student at North Carolina State University. He said he wanted to “kind of take a stand, if you will.”
Young voters turned sharply against Republicans on Tuesday, wiping out the gains Trump made among them in the 2024 presidential election. Compared with two years earlier, voters under 30 shifted left by double digits in nearly every major Senate contest.
House races showed much the same pattern nationwide. The AP Voter Poll, which surveyed more than 100,000 midterm voters, found that roughly three-quarters of voters under 30 backed their local Democratic candidate. About one-quarter supported the Republican.
Democrats’ support exceeded even their performance in 2018, when Trump’s Republican Party suffered major losses during his first term. It also marked a striking reversal from 2024, when young voters were approximately split between Trump and Democrat Kamala Harris, according to AP VoteCast, which surveyed more than 120,000 voters that year.
For Soma, Trump’s broken promise to keep the United States out of Middle Eastern conflicts was the decisive issue. Students interviewed the day after the election on North Carolina State’s Raleigh campus repeatedly expressed similar frustrations.
Other young voters who moved toward Democrats said their choices reflected personal economic pressures, from holding multiple jobs to watching artificial intelligence data center projects expand in their communities.
“I’m trying to save money and buy a house and all that, but it’s difficult right now,” said Corey Herzog, 28, an independent who became a Democrat in the traditionally conservative Ohio town of Celina. Herzog works at Walmart during the day, bartends at night and runs a small side business selling houseplants.
John Della Volpe, a pollster who regularly surveys young Americans for the Harvard Kennedy School’s Institute of Politics, said the dramatic swings of the past two elections show that young voters are not permanently aligned with either party.
“They’re up for grabs,” he said. “Especially given the state of the economy and their concerns about the future.”
In 2024, Trump won young men. This year, many stayed home or supported Democrats
Trump’s successful 2024 presidential campaign targeted young men disillusioned by economic stagnation, interventionist foreign policy and the government’s emphasis on diversity, equity and inclusion. He attended football games and UFC events and appeared on podcasts hosted by comedians who criticized “cancel culture.”
According to AP VoteCast, more than half of male voters under 30 supported Trump in 2024.
After taking office, however, Trump launched the war with Iran and pushed through tariff policies that continued to fuel inflation. He also opposed releasing documents related to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and began an immigration crackdown that drew widespread criticism.
“This was the perfect cocktail for disaster,” said Charlie Sabgir, director of the Washington-based Young Men Research Project.
Young voters’ dissatisfaction was evident across nearly every major issue in the midterm election. Compared with older age groups, voters under 30 were more likely to say the cost of living was central to their congressional vote and to believe the United States was wrong to take military action against Iran.
About half of young voters said they were angry about the direction of the country, compared with roughly one-third of voters ages 65 and older.
Young voters delivered an especially strong anti-Trump backlash
Although opposition to Trump was a defining feature of the election, the reaction among young voters was particularly pronounced.
Only about one in four voters under 30 said Trump is a strong leader or possesses the mental capacity to serve effectively as president, according to The AP Voter Poll. In 2024, roughly half of young voters viewed him as a strong leader and mentally fit. The decline was steeper among young voters than in any other age group.
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“This cultural coalition and cultural cache that Trump had behind him going into 2024 — they’ve clearly soured on him,” Sabgir said.
Approximately six in 10 voters under 30 said opposing Trump was one reason they voted in their House race.
A national coalition of college Republican organizations issued a statement underscoring its frustration, saying young Republicans “were not given what they were promised.”
“In the wake of last night’s election results, the College Republican Patriot Coalition unequivocally lays the blame for the greatest Republican defeat by Democrats since 1974 at the feet of the Trump administration and the Republican Party,” the group said.
Kidus Girma, campaigns director for the left-leaning Sunrise Movement, said he encountered young men while canvassing in Michigan who normally might not vote in a midterm but turned out this time because they were disappointed with Trump.
Girma recalled one man who said he was having trouble finding work even as Trump maintained that the economy was performing well.
“It’s like this deep disillusionment with the statements the president makes versus the material impacts people are facing in their everyday lives,” Girma said.
Gen Z gets its ‘millennial optimism’ moment. Democrats must deliver to hold on to young voters
Sarah Stull, an 18-year-old student at the University of Texas at Austin, found it amusing that so many classmates dressed as “millennial optimism” for Halloween. Wearing skinny jeans and infinity scarves, they grinned broadly while poking fun at an older generation known for its unapologetic hopefulness.
Stull understood the joke. Like many people her age, she described herself as “very sarcastic, very jaded — and do sometimes expect the worst.”
Yet on election night, as she watched the results with friends in a dorm room, that cynicism disappeared.
“We were freaking out, all of us were crying,” said Stull, a young Democrat who voted for James Talarico for Senate and Gina Hinojosa for governor. “I just felt this sense of community that I had never felt before.”
She later posted a TikTok video showing herself and friends leaping with joy outside the Texas Capitol. Its caption read: “millennial optimism cause texas went blue.”
Young adults like Stull — who was 7 when Trump descended the escalator at New York’s Trump Tower in 2015 to announce his first presidential campaign — have known little beyond what Northeastern University political science and communication professor Katherine Haenschen calls “the Trumpification of politics.” That era now appears to be fading, offering left-leaning young people a sense of hope for the first time.
Still, the moment remains fragile.
Dakota Hall, executive director of the progressive youth political organization Alliance for Youth Action, said young voters could swing right again if Democrats who control Congress fail to reduce living costs, regulate artificial intelligence and confront government corruption.
“Young people have a very short leash,” Hall said. “If you do not deliver, ’28 will be a rough road ahead.”
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Rankin reported from Raleigh, N.C.
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