Democrats were left reeling in 2024 after an unexpected erosion of support among young men—a demographic they once considered reliably in their corner. The party’s internal alarm bells rang loudly, especially as exit polls and subsequent research pointed to a clear shift: young male voters, once a bedrock of Democratic strength, had either drifted away or simply tuned out. Yet, as the dust settled and the 2025 off-year elections brought a glimmer of hope, Democrats found themselves at a crossroads, grappling with how to halt this troubling trend and win back a generation that seemed to be slipping through their fingers.
According to NBC News, the party wasted no time between the 2024 presidential contest and the November 2025 elections. Democrats launched a battery of research projects, experimented with new communication styles, and amplified fresh voices in a determined bid to reconnect with younger voters. But after months of soul-searching, one major takeaway emerged from a series of October interviews with left-leaning strategists and operatives: there’s no single national figure who can magically rally young men back to the Democratic fold.
“If not Trump, then who? 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,” Amanda Litman, founder and executive director of Run for Something, told NBC News. She was blunt in her assessment: “I don’t think Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries have the answer to that,” referencing the party’s Senate and House leaders. The implication was clear—Democrats can’t simply rely on a charismatic leader to solve their young male voter problem.
Instead, party insiders believe the solution lies in something both simpler and more elusive: communicating their popular policies in the right spaces. Danielle Butterfield, executive director of Priorities USA, explained, “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?” She pointed out that Democrats consistently poll well on issues like health care and health care costs but struggle to make young men aware of these stances—especially in the digital spaces where they actually spend their time.
Former Democratic Rep. Colin Allred, now running for Senate in Texas in 2026, offered a candid critique. Drawing on his background as a collegiate and NFL football player, Allred said, “If you listen to many Democratic speeches over the last few years, and you kind of listen to the recitation of policies, if you’re a young man listening into that, you might think that none of those were directed towards you. And I think that was a mistake.” He added, “What I’ve seen is that if somebody agrees with you on policy, but thinks that you don’t understand them, their culture, what they’re going through and where they come from, then they’re still not going to want to support you.”
So where are young men finding connection and a sense of belonging? Increasingly, the answer is the so-called “manosphere”—a loose network of podcasts hosted by comedians like Joe Rogan, Theo Von, Tim Dillon, and Andrew Schulz. These shows, according to Litman, create a powerful sense of intimacy and community. “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 observed in an interview with NBC News.
The party’s research backs this up. A Priorities USA survey of 5,000 voters in September 2025 found that 66% of those who listened to “manosphere” podcasts in the prior month had voted for Trump in 2024. But there’s a twist: cracks are forming in that support. Eight percent of these listeners now disapprove of Trump’s presidency, and 7% said they’d consider voting for a Democrat in a generic congressional race. Some podcasters themselves have begun criticizing Trump on issues like deportations, Israel’s war in Gaza, and the Jeffrey Epstein files, suggesting the “manosphere” may not be as monolithic as it once seemed.
Still, Butterfield cautioned against complacency. “We’re not going to just earn back all of these voters right away just because of their opposition to Trump. We’re going to have to make sure we are offering an alternative point of view, alternative policies that solve their economic anxieties, visions for the future, etc. That’s going to be the difference between an okay midterm and a really amazing midterm,” she said, adding, “We’re not going to just get by on people hating Trump alone. We’ll get far-ish, but not as far as we need to go.”
Recent electoral results offer both encouragement and a reality check. In November’s New Jersey and Virginia elections, Democratic governors-elect Mikie Sherrill and Abigail Spanberger scored larger-than-expected victories and made inroads among young men. However, the margins among young male voters still lagged behind the overall margins of victory, a reminder that there’s more work to be done with this group.
So what’s the path forward? Democratic strategists believe it’s about “message, messenger, and medium.” In practice, that means showing up on the podcasts and in the digital and real-world spaces where young men already gather. In 2025, high-profile Democrats like Pete Buttigieg and Gavin Newsom appeared on long-form podcasts—sometimes the very same ones that hosted Trump. New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani, for example, built his profile on TikTok and appeared on the “manosphere” podcast “Flagrant.”
But it’s not just about podcasts. Allred argued for engaging in more informal, community-based settings, such as football games. “I think that in the Democratic Party, there’s almost been a reluctance to engage in things like football, and I don’t really get that. I don’t think you have to be the biggest fan of it to know that this is a place where the community is gathering and people are having, at least for me, these are some of the realest conversations I have in the entire week,” he said. He believes that meeting voters in these environments makes Democrats seem less like “elite ivory tower policy wonks” and more like authentic, relatable leaders.
Butterfield echoed the importance of authenticity and adaptability as the party looks ahead to 2026 and 2028. “I think that your ability to authentically communicate in these spaces should be a requirement to be a good candidate in today’s world, right?” she said. “We need to be holding our candidates to a high standard of electability, such that if you can’t come across as yourself on social media, maybe we need to pick a different candidate.”
As Democrats regroup and refocus, the lesson is clear: winning back young men won’t be quick or easy. It will take a willingness to meet them where they are, speak their language, and offer real solutions to their concerns. The party’s future may well depend on it.