by Grace Cowell
On November 6, 2024, the day after Trump’s reelection, the air around the Northeastern University campus felt full of disappointment. As a political science student, naturally all of my classes that Wednesday turned into large discussions where most everyone was not only in a collective state of frustration and fear, but also complete shock. It seemed as though those around me could not comprehend how so many people, especially fellow young people, voted for Trump.
While equally disheartened by the results, I did not share the same feelings of disbelief. As we sat around the TV the previous night with our roommates and friends, my one roommate from Pennsylvania and I were the only ones not surprised as more and more states were announced red. Prior to my time at Northeastern, I would have never considered my home state of Maryland to be “southern,” and while I still generally don’t, I have found that not many of my school friends and peers are from any further south than me.
While my state typically swings blue, and did so once again in November, that does not discredit the number of conservatives I grew up with. When I drive through my suburban town, just outside of Annapolis, amidst the many yards with a “Hate has no Home Here” sign, there’s just as many plastered with “Make America Great Again.” At school though, where many people I know are from Massachusetts and other northern states or California, it felt like most people had never experienced the same division in political alignment as I did.
When I woke up on November 6th and scrolled through my Instagram feed, I noticed the majority of people I knew who were reposting results in celebration were from Maryland and those reposting in distress were people from Northeastern. Exit polls show that of those ages 18-29, 54% voted democrat, while 43% voted republican. While this is still a relatively wide margin, I have found that many people were surprised that more did not vote democrat, given their perception that Gen Z is overwhelmingly progressive, but in my experience I have not found this to be true.
While I have no definitive answers to why so many in my generation lean conservatively, I have observed a few common themes amongst those who align in such a way, many of which are not due to actual politics. I find a lot of young voters across party lines do not have fully formed political ideologies, but have an alignment rooted in outside factors, such as social justice issues or religion, which then translate into the candidates and policies they support. There also are distinguishable trends between not just Gen Z women and men as a whole, where significantly more young men are aligning conservatively, but also between women and men in the conservative sphere.
For example, an overwhelming majority of the women I saw reposting images of Trump’s win in celebration paired them with the phrase “Thank you Jesus” or some form of religious tagline. At the same time, I have been noticing an increase in young women I know opening up about their religious affiliations. As Trump has portrayed himself as a champion for religion, advocating just last week for “bringing religion back to our country,” it makes sense for those who were previously quiet about both their political and religious affinities to simultaneously become vocal about Trump and their conservative Christianity. Meanwhile, the men who reposted the same images were pairing them with more traditional “masculine,” patriotic content, such as them driving trucks with MAGA flags or carrying hunting rifles.
More generally, I have heard a common consensus of annoyance surrounding those who are liberal or progressive, leading individuals to steer the other direction. A lot of politically vocal and active youth in the media are left-leaning which I think leads many others to vote oppositely because they find such rhetoric to be shoved in their faces, creating a generalized perception of the Democratic Party and progressives as a whole that they do not want to align with.
Those who are vocal about social justice issues are often slapped with the “liberal” label, even when they do not classify themselves as such, a term that has developed a stigma of shame and is oftentimes used in an insulting manner. While this perception has existed for decades, the rise in social media has provided a clear, undesirable image, as well as a forum for people to vocalize opposition. Therefore it feels as though many young people will stay quiet on issues or offer combatant rhetoric just to avoid gaining the “liberal” reputation.
There is a general “all or nothing” ideology on both ends of the political spectrum, meaning if a moderate individual outwardly supports one liberal cause, they are fully classified as a liberal, and vice versa if such person were to support a conservative cause. Thus if someone needs to make a choice on how they would like to be perceived, at least in my hometown, it is viewed as less polarizing to lean conservatively, as it lends itself more to the status quo and overall desire for conformity that persists in suburban areas.
While consistent to a certain extent across genders, this phenomenon appears most apparent amongst young men. Polls show that in 2024, Gen Z women voted 61% blue and 38% red, whereas Gen Z men voted 48% blue and 49% red, portraying quite a large contrast that I feel like I can mainly credit to good old misogyny.
This is obviously not a new or revolutionary concept, but the accessibility to the internet and the rise in social media and short form videos have allowed a continuous streamline of hypermasculine content to be pushed on to young, impressionable men, whether they seek it out or not. Such content consists of men talking about current events through a highly misogynistic lens, putting down women and oftentimes blaming them for the problems faced by men, particularly white men. When a young man repeatedly sees this content, it builds resentment toward women and anyone else that they are made to believe threatens their role in society, such as immigrants. They begin to think that anyone advocating for feminism, or for an oppressed group, is not advocating for equality, but rather for the inferiority of men.
It is clear that hypermasculine content strikes a nerve, tapping into the insecurities of young men and the stigma that they cannot be weak or emotional, and then takes it to an extreme. While this may not appear to promote politics, inherently it does, instilling values in young men that are then reflected by many conservative political figures such as Donald Trump, but not very notably in democratic or progressive leaders. When trying to appeal to younger generations, a more progressive candidate often taps into emotions and social justice issues in a way that many young men do not want to be associated with so as to not appear weak, which leads back to the opposition of the “liberal” label.
My main takeaway about Gen Z following this past election season and continuing into Trump’s second term is that most everything we are exposed to in the media, especially social media, even if not outwardly, is political and targeted toward the largest consumers of such media – younger generations. So much of how Gen Z views politics is formed by the media we consume. We no longer are only exposed to the views of those physically around us, as with the click of a few buttons we can observe the perspectives of millions. This overwhelming amount of content can lead us to latch on to a few ideologies that resonate the most, influencing how we vote and politically align.
It will be interesting to see how these concepts develop as Trump’s presidency continues and media platforms evolve, but as more members of Gen Z turn 18 and reach voting eligibility, I personally do not see the conservative youth going anywhere.
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Grace Cowell is a student at Northeastern University and a legislative intern at MAPA.
