As President-elect Donald Trump prepares to reclaim the Oval Office, his election gains among men have become a key focus. These gains — particularly among young and Latino men — suggest dissatisfaction with the way Democrats have addressed economic and societal changes affecting men.
During the 2024 presidential election, much of the attention was placed on the female vote, as Vice President Kamala Harris campaigned to be the first female president and many high-profile women backed her campaign.
However, as it turned out, many men had significant motivations to vote.
“A lot of men were sick of being told they are terrible and there is nothing they can do, and that’s I think the huge mistake that Democrats made,” said Kat Timpf on the Fox News program “Gutfeld!”
How Trump’s campaign appealed to issues men face
Richard Reeves, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and author of “Of Boys and Men,” sees this frustration as part of some larger trends for men.
“They have come to believe that the progressive agenda on behalf of women has felt it necessary to somehow either dismiss or even denigrate men — and they’re over it,” Reeves said. He also pointed out a troubling trend among young men, citing a survey where two-thirds reported feeling like no one knows them very well, and 15% had no close friends.
Reeves also discussed the deeper issues men face, including stagnant wages and disproportionate death rates from suicide and overdose.
The unwillingness of anybody on the center-left to just have a straightforward conversation about men’s mental health, about male employment, about male wages has created a gigantic vacuum in our culture and in our politics,” Reeves added.
Republicans, according to Reeves, have filled this void. Through male-dominated social media platforms sometimes referred to as “The Manosphere,” including “The Joe Rogan Experience” podcast, conservative figures have successfully reached men, especially through sports and popular culture.
“We’ve dealt with – especially in the last three-and-a-half years — a complete dismemberment of what it is to be a man,” said Tyrus, a conservative commentator, in an interview with Trump — a sentiment with which Trump agreed.
Trump’s appeal to men contrasts sharply with the left’s more progressive stance on gender. Conservative commentator Michael Knowles said, “Trump appealed to men because he appealed to men. He actually campaigned to try to win their votes.”
Knowles feels the left’s approach has gone too far in disregarding men’s issues.
Faiz Shakir, chief political advisor to Sen. Bernie Sanders, acknowledged Republicans have done a better job in connecting with men, even as he pointed out the Biden administration’s focus on factory jobs and infrastructure has been beneficial to men. He suspects Trump will eventually take credit for these achievements.
The growing divide between the left and right over how men are perceived in society remains a critical issue heading into the next election.
Reeves warns against relying on the conventional wisdom, saying that “if there’s a problem, there has to be a villain.” He says we can’t blame either feminism or the women’s movement for the challenges men face.
“This is definitely not the fault of women … But the problem sometimes on the other side, on progressive left side, has been to say that, by definition, men can’t have problems because men are the problem.”
