Gen Z Support for Trump Fades Ahead of Midterm Elections
Gen Z support for Trump. Nearly two years after the 2024 election, some Gen Z support for President Trump has faded as early voting begins for the midterms, according to focus groups and polling.
Nearly two years after playing a key role in President Trump’s 2024 winning coalition, some Gen Z support has faded as early voting gets underway in multiple states for the midterm elections.
That sentiment emerged in a virtual focus group conducted last week by Navigator Research, a left-leaning polling group, involving eight Generation Z Trump voters aged 20 to 29 across Florida, Mississippi, Ohio, Texas and South Carolina. Participants reported varying degrees of unhappiness and disappointment over the state of politics, with some expressing regret over their 2024 vote.
When asked to grade the president’s job performance, 6 out of 8 participants assigned a grade of either D or F, while two selected C, citing frustration over a string of failed promises and rising costs.
I just feel like nothing went correctly. I just feel like everything got worse, said John, a 29-year-old Black man from Florida, who identifies as a Republican and plans to support Democratic candidates this fall.
I'm willing to give the other side a chance. I don't think they're going to make a total change. But things are just horrible right now for me. So I feel like even if they make one or two small changes, it will probably benefit me.
While the focus group is not a nationally representative survey, Navigator polling conducted this month found that more than a third of Gen Zers under age 30 regret voting for Trump, a higher rate than older generations. Trump has also lost ground with other groups that shifted right in 2024, including independents and Latino voters.
Among the focus group participants, four still planned to back Republicans this year, three said they would vote for Democrats, and one was still deciding.
Matthew, a 25-year-old Black man in Texas, gave Trump a C grade and said he does not regret his support.
I feel like he’s done a really good job closing the border, he said, adding that he also appreciates efforts to end conflicts that began under the last administration, aside from the Iran conflict.
Courtney, a 20-year-old white woman in South Carolina, does not regret her vote and aligns with Republicans, but she expressed growing distrust of both major parties on foreign policy.
I just really do feel like we would be in this situation either way. … Education, the economy, everything else would be so much better if we weren’t pumping money out into other countries that aren’t ours, she said, citing U.S. aid for Israel and the decision to go to war with Iran.
I don’t think it matters what side you vote on — that’s why I voted red, because I agree with those policies more — but at the end of the day, what we do in the Middle East is going to be not at all up to [the] party [in power], she added.
Melissa Toufanian, managing director at Navigator, noted that voters souring on the Republican Party do not automatically shift toward Democrats.
As we see people regret their vote for Trump, sour on the Republican Party and Republican policies, that doesn’t necessarily mean that they’re swinging right over to Democrats, Toufanian said.
She pointed to polling showing that loss of trust on economic issues has not translated to a one-for-one gain for Democrats.
A lot of people are moving to this middle, this category that 'I don't trust either party,'@@ she said. @@We are seeing people who are becoming increasingly pessimistic about our political parties and our political system, and they're not feeling strongly that either party can really deliver for them.
