As Kamala Harris recovers from the shock of her brutal loss to Donald Trump, a shift in voters has emerged that may hurt the Democratic candidate the most.
Young women of Generation Z, wIdeally considered Harris safest demographicthey turned their backs on the democrats en masse to support Donald Trump.
Exit AP Poll reveals that 40 percent of women under 30 voted for Trump, a seven-point jump from 2020. The youngest of them, ages 18 to 24, fled Harris in greater numbers and Trump gained 11 points in his race with Joe Biden.
Trump’s big rally with young women helped secure the largest share of voters under 30 of any Republican candidate since 2008.
Hillary Clinton had a 19-point lead among those under 30 when she faced Trump in 2016, Biden widened that gap to 25 points, but with Harris that margin was reduced to just 6 points.
As Kamala Harris reels in shock from her brutal loss to Donald Trump, a voter shift has emerged that perhaps hurts the Democratic candidate the most.
Young Gen Z women, widely considered Harris’ safest demographic, turned their backs on Democrats in droves to support Donald Trump.
Trump also targeted Generation Z, but his methods appealed more to young men than women, with podcast appearances with Joe Rogan, Theo Von and the Nelk Boys.
Harris made no secret of her attempt to secure Gen Z female voters, embracing “brat summer” and appearing on Alex Cooper’s wildly popular Call Her Daddy podcast.
She sought the endorsement of female music icons: Charli XCX, Taylor Swift and Beyoncé endorsed her during the campaign.
The vice president used terms like “weird” to describe Trump and his running mate JD Vance, adopted the nickname “Momala” and created TikTok videos set to the hit song by Gen Z’s favorite rising star Chappel Roan. “Femininomenon.”
And while he may have won the TikTok war (getting 448 million likes to Trump’s 102 million), he couldn’t translate that into votes.
Harris put abortion at the forefront of her campaign after Supreme Court justices appointed during the Trump administration overturned Roe v Wade in 2022.
AP exit polls reveal that 40 percent of women under 30 voted for Trump, a seven-point jump from 2020. The youngest of them, ages 18 to 24, fled Harris in greater numbers and Trump won 11 points in his race with Joe Biden.
She warned voters that another Trump presidency put reproductive rights at greater risk.
But only 13 percent of voters under 30 said abortion was their top concern.
In stark contrast, 40 percent of that age group said the economy was their top concern. Another 11 percent of those under 30 said immigration was their main problem.
Psychotherapist and author Jonathan Alpert told DailyMail.com that he was not surprised that Trump did better than expected with Gen Z women.
“There’s an assumption made about Generation Z: A lot of so-called political pundits think that just because someone is in their teens to early 20s and female, that means they would automatically vote for Harris,” he said.
“In fact, many told me that they felt unsafe in the America of Biden and Harris and that they wanted change.”
Harris made no secret of her attempt to secure Gen Z female voters, embracing ‘brat summer’ and appearing on Alex Cooper’s popular Call Her Daddy podcast.
She warned voters that another Trump presidency put reproductive rights at greater risk.
Harris put abortion at the forefront of her campaign after Supreme Court justices appointed during the Trump administration overturned Roe v Wade in 2022.
Alpert said there were strong women’s rights advocates and feminists in this age group who still chose to vote for Trump because they considered other factors to be more pressing.
“At the end of the day, Gen Z cared about a lot of things, but security and prosperity seemed to take precedence over other things that the Harris campaign gave too much power to,” he said.
Business analyst and political commentator Nadja Atwal said young people did not “resonate” with the campaign, despite all the effort made to learn the lingo and meet Generation Z on their favorite platforms.
“Plain and simple, many felt he was unrelatable,” he said.
Charli XCX, 31, addressed X on Sunday saying, “Kamala IS a brat,” an endorsement that references the name of her album released earlier this year.
They’ve spawned bright green square memes, and when BidenHQ became ‘KamalaHQ’, a witty and probably younger member of their staff added the recognizable ‘brat’ logo to their page.
‘While the economy looks pretty good in numbers, it doesn’t matter when people can’t make a living due to high costs. “Based on my findings, Gen Z felt that the Harris campaign did not address that issue enough.”
Beyond that, Atwal said the accumulation of celebrity endorsements may have worked against Harris.
“A lot of young people were downright insulted by the fact that the Harris campaign was banking on star power,” he said. ‘It doesn’t resonate to see Hollywood and music stars living in large mansions behind fences and protected by bodyguards.
‘Trump bet on the working class… preparing and serving fries at McDonalds… driving the garbage truck.
“It was seen as something interesting and relatable.”
Trump also targeted Generation Z, but his methods appealed more to young men than women, with podcast appearances with Joe Rogan, Theo Von and the Nelk Boys.
The 78-year-old made significant inroads among Gen Z men, following the advice of his 18-year-old son Barron.
Fifty-six percent of men under 30 voted for Trump over Harris, a 15-point increase compared to her loss against Biden in 2020.
About 42 percent of young voters voted this year, a lower turnout than the 50 percent in 2020 but roughly on par with the 2016 election.
