NYT: Gen Z most conservative generation in decades

The 2024 election was a major warning sign for Democrats, and they are finally starting to realize they are in trouble.

A recent report in The New York Times noted that Gen Z is now the most conservative generation we have seen in quite some time.

Trump Picks Up Among Younger Voters

I have long believed that the one person Donald Trump really needed to thank for winning the 2024 election was his son, Barron.

Barron is the mastermind behind Trump's outreach to podcasts to draw in younger voters, and it worked. I will die on the hill believing that had Trump not done those podcasts, he never would have won this election.

You know you are scaring Dems when they talk about Trump making inroads, but that Democrats were still leading, which is what they did in the 2024 election.

Harris still won younger voters, but only by six points (52-46%). What they are not saying, however, is that Trump picked up a whopping 10% in the 2024 election, which shows a major shift in power for the Republicans in this demographic. And most of this is likely because, for the first time, the GOP actually spoke directly to younger voters.

Trump Picks Up Minority Voters

The same thing can be said among minority voters, where Democrats have typically dominated the GOP. But again, headlines in the mainstream media did not tout the GOP gaining voters but instead chose to take a shot at the party.

For instance, Brookings posted a report that was headlined, “Trump gained some minority voters, but the GOP is hardly a multiracial coalition.”

Trump made significant strides in terms of minority voting percentages for a Republican, a trend I have seen since he first took office in 2017. These are not big swings, mind you, but they are notable enough and consistent enough to show that Democrats are losing minorities, and if they do that, they are done.

As an example of how the report tries to make lemonade out of lemons, it stated, “However, a closer look at the data gives pause to such assertions, and suggests that recent small deviations from long-term minority voting patterns could be a short-term blip that has not truly transformed the GOP’s voter base.” They simply cannot accept the reality that more minorities are becoming conservative in nature.

NYT Sees Big Shift

New York Times columnist Ezra Klein seemed shocked that Gen Z is walking across the aisle, as Democrats have typically dominated voters in that age bracket.

Klein, in part, stated, "I find this part of this chart shocking. I sometimes talk about narrative violations, and if we knew anything about Donald Trump eight years ago, it was that young people didn’t like him. And Republicans had been maybe throwing away young people for generations in order to run up their margins among seniors. But if you look at this chart, 75-year-old White men supported Kamala Harris at a significantly higher rate than 20-year-old White men."

He continued, "This is the thing I am the most shocked by in the last four years — that young people have gone from being the most progressive generation since the Baby Boomers, and maybe even in some ways more so, to becoming potentially the most conservative generation that we’ve experienced maybe in 50 to 60 years."

Again, this all goes back to Trump doing podcasts to reach out to younger voters, so I hope he does not stop now that he is in the White House. Trump needs to continue to do exactly what he did to let them know their voices are still being heard. If he does that, I think he can continue this trend and start to loosen the grip Democrats have on younger voters in this country.