After decades of Democrats relying on the youth vote, polling now shows a shift as more young people embrace conservative views, breaking from the liberal leanings of previous generations.
“It’s starting to feel cool to be a conservative now,” 19-year-old Kieran Laffey told the Washington Times. “Younger people all over the country are kind of waking up,” added Laffey, a junior studying political science at George Washington University in the District of Columbia and chair of the GW College Republicans.
As part of Generation Z — born between the late 1990s and early 2010s — he belongs to a cohort whose oldest members are now in their 20s and pushing back against the liberal establishment and what they view as left-wing dogma, even as the youngest are still in high school.
“Everything we’ve seen for the past, even decade, people like myself, young, white male – we’ve been completely demonized and almost hated and told that somehow we’re wrong, we’re racist or sexist,” he said.
A Yale Youth Poll in spring 2025 found voters ages 22–29 backed the Democratic candidate by about six points, while those 18–21 favored the Republican by nearly 12 points, the Times reported.
The youngest eligible voters also lean more conservative on social issues, opposing transgender athletes in women’s sports and further aid to Ukraine. Analysts point to different formative experiences: older Gen Zers enjoyed school and social milestones before COVID-19, while younger ones saw classrooms shut, sports canceled, and the country divided over mandates — shaping more skeptical political views.
Laffey, who was 14 during the beginning of the pandemic, said the lockdowns were when he started “waking up to American politics.” He told the outlet: “I was a normal kid in high school, played hockey my whole life, hung out with my friends, and that all stopped. I started to realize, oh, who’s kind of pulling the strings here, what’s going on?”
