“It’s starting to feel cool to be a conservative now,” 19-year-old Kieran Laffey said.
After decades of the Democratic Party counting on the youth vote in elections, a shift is underway. Polls show a growing wave of young people embracing conservative views, breaking from the liberal bent that dominated the youth of past generations.
“Younger people all over the country are kind of waking up,” said Mr. Laffey, a junior studying political science at George Washington University in the District of Columbia and chair of the GW College Republicans.
He is a member of Generation Z, born between the late 1990s and early 2010s. While the youngest members of the generation are still in high school, the older Gen Z are out of school, all under the age of 30, and many are rebelling against the liberal establishment and what they see as oppressive left-wing dogma.
“Everything we’ve seen for the past, even decade, people like myself, young, white male – we’ve been completely demonized and almost hated and told that somehow we’re wrong, we’re racist or sexist,” he said.
A Yale Youth Poll from Spring 2025 found that voters aged 22-29 favored the Democratic candidate by a margin of roughly 6 points, but those aged 18-21 favored the Republican candidate by almost 12 points.
The youngest eligible voters lean more conservative when it comes to other social views as well. They’re less likely to support transgender athletes in women’s sports and oppose more aid to Ukraine.
