Democrats dip into the 'manosphere' in search of the key to the young male vote

Democrats were knocked back on their heels in 2024 by the party’s erosion of support among young men.

Democrats were knocked back on their heels in 2024 by the party’s erosion of support among young men. They were gratified to see improvement with that group in key elections earlier this month.

In between, the party has been on a mission to stop its erosion among young voters, launching research efforts, piloting different styles of communication and elevating new voices. And it has already come to one important conclusion, according to interviews in October with a range of people on the left working on the issue: The solution to Democrats’ struggle to appeal to young men won’t come from one national figure who will instantly, magically draw them in.

“If not Trump, then who? And the question for the Democratic Party that I think is one of the challenges we have right now is, we don’t have a great answer for that,” Amanda Litman, the founder and executive director of Run for Something, a group that recruits young Democratic candidates for downballot races, told NBC News.

“I don’t think Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries have the answer to that,” she added, referring to the Senate and House minority leaders respectively.

But while Democrats may not have one leading figure they can rely on to recruit young male voters, one overarching belief is that they do have popular policies that — if communicated well and in the right spaces — could put the party on a path to victory with young voters.