• Generation X and younger voters have shifted to the right in recent polls, favoring Trump more than in 2020.
• Economic concerns and social media strategies influenced Generation Z’s political shift.
• Meanwhile, General Xers were already disapproving of President Joe Biden the most.

The 2024 election saw some major shifts in the way the generations voted. early exit poll data suggested.

Democrats lost a lot of ground with Gen Z, while Republicans won Gen

The results challenge some long-held stereotypes about generations’ political views. For example, supposedly progressive Gen Zers showed more conservative leanings this election than the last. and aging boomers have shied away from the idea that they are becoming more conservative with age.

To be fair, the early exit poll data has a wide margin of error. As more votes are counted in the coming days and months, more precise data on the shape of the 2024 electorate will be released.

The youngest voters and those reaching middle age moved sharply to the right. Generation Gen Z favored Vice President Kamala Harris by 11 points, compared to 24 points for President Joe Biden.

Meanwhile, millennials and their boomer parents were less likely to move toward Trump. Millennials favored Harris by one point, a shift of five points from Biden’s six-point margin in 2020. Boomers went from supporting Trump by five points in 2020 to a tie between the two candidates this year, and were the only age group that voted more democratic.

Generation Z’s major shift to the right was not entirely unexpected. A Gallup and Walton Family Foundation survey conducted last fall found that teens were twice as likely to identify as conservative as their parents compared to millennials 20 years ago.

The Trump campaign has paid a lot of attention to this age group. Andrew Heyward, former president of CBS News, told The New York Times that Trump has become a “master of evolving media” by working with online influencers and personalities. Trump regularly appeared on podcasts, streams and TikToks consumed primarily by Gen Z and millennials, including The Joe Rogan Experience.

That strategy may have convinced younger voters that the Republican Party can reach them better than the Democrats. “People don’t really vote for what they want, they vote for who they are,” Jason Brennan, professor of strategy, public policy and economics at Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business, told BI.

“I think a lot of young men are looking at the Democrats’ messages and not being put off by it,” Brennan said, and it could at least partially explain the generational shifts.

The parents of Gen Z from Gen

Generation

Their role between caring for children and aging parents puts them in a particularly precarious economic situation. They are the generation most likely to say they don’t feel financially secure. Many are concerned about saving for retirement, while some are still concerned about buying a home. Some long for the success of their boomer and silent generation parents, Amy Walter, a nonpartisan political analyst at The Cook Political Report, told NPR.

Meanwhile, according to Brennan, boomers are a bit more of a puzzle. Their shift could come down to a dark demographic reality: male boomers are more likely to die than their female counterparts, and women are more likely to vote Democratic than men. But more broadly, the results can also be attributed to a lack of enthusiasm.

“What it takes to win is you have to bring out your base, and then you have to get the swing voters to shift toward you,” Brennan said.

Are you a Gen Z shifted right or a boomer shifted left? Contact these reporters at [email protected] And [email protected].