Democrats spend $20 million to study young men as they flock to conservatives globally

Across the world, not just in the United States, there's a widespread belief that the system is broken

that the establishment no longer delivers on people's basic needs, that parties and politicians, you know, don't worry about the average person. The system is rigged

In the wake of Democrats' electoral defeat in 2024, the party is now spending millions of dollars to figure out why they're losing young men

According to data compiled by the Associated Press, in the 2020 election, President Joe Biden won men 18 to 44 by seven percentage points

Just four years later, President Donald Trump won the group by eight percentage points

And that's where the 20 million speaking with American men project comes in

SAM's co-founder gave an exclusive look at some of their findings to Politico this week

Democrats are seen as weak, whereas Republicans are seen as strong. Young men also spoke of being invisible to the Democratic coalition

And so you've got this weak problem and then you've got this

I don't think they care about me problem. And I think the combination is kind of a killer And that sentiment isn just taking hold here in the United States We can understand Trump as an example of that but we see it in Latin America

Europe. We see it a bit of everywhere. I'm Clifford Young, and I'm a president of

Polling and Societal Trends at Ipsos, and I'm a professional pollster in a context where

across the board, there's disbelief in the system, that the system actually works

and it works for them specifically. And so we can understand young men in that context

Governments are no longer delivering or people feel like they're not delivering, that they're not telling the truth. The powers that be are no longer, as I said before

working for them. So that's kind of the broad context and that affects everyone, not just

young men. Young says that feeling is what has pushed some younger millennial men

and Gen Z men to conservative movements globally. And as for which parts of society aren't working for young men

it could come down to economic conditions or how social issues have entered the forefront

They're intertwined. And so saying that the system is broken could mean to some people that you know that the economic opportunities are not there But to other people it could mean it the America that once was no longer is doesn

look the same. Or to others, and especially young men, it might like fall on the sort of

the fundamental issue of fairness. It's no longer fair. America isn't like it was. It was fair at

According to a March 2025 Ipsos poll, 56 percent of millennial men and 57 percent of Gen Z men globally believe promoting women's equality has gone so far that it's discriminating against men

The same poll found 57 percent of millennial men and 60 percent of Gen Z men believe they're being asked to do too much to support gender equality

A subset of men feel that they're on the wrong side of the culture war debates, right, when it comes to Democrats

that they're the ones that are being disadvantaged, that the rules that are being implemented

the decisions that are being made in the corporate world and more broadly don't favor them

But overall Young looks at how the parties are perceived by voters When you look at the data the Democrats are the party of the establishment The attitudes are much more rule

more establishment-based than the Republican Party. And the Republican Party has become the party

of the anti-establishment. Even as the SAM project studies young men, Young says the search for answers

in the wake of electoral defeat is a common practice. I think coming out out of a loss, a presidential loss, you're always kind of discombobulated

The party that loses always, you know, has to find its north. I think that's natural now

I don't think the Republicans, excuse me, the Democrats are in any worse place than any other party coming out of a problematic election

Right. And they can walk and chew gum at the same time

They can focus on multiple things. So they should probably focus on women and some very specific sort of issues there

Both parties have just over 500 days to prepare for the 2026 midterm elections

where control of the House and Senate will be at stake. For Straight Arrow News, I'm Lauren Keenan

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