The Kids are Alright

New polling shows that Democrats still have the "youth vote"

Author

mister mix
April 27, 2025

My favorite Steve M, who shares the same negative view of humanity as me, read the latest Times poll:

We're regularly told that the Democratic Party has become a niche party -- that the party's core is educated, well-off whites -- but this poll suggests that the Republican Party is a niche party now. College-educated whites, college-educated non-whites, and non-college-educated non-whites all reject what Trump is doing. Only non-college-educated whites offer support.

The same poll shows that 18-29 year olds reject Trump in a greater majority than the rest of the group polled. So much for Shor’s research.

Steve’s thesis is that the Republicans are a “niche party”, and I agree. Their base is non-college-educated whites. I don’t think we should abandon this demographic, but I also think that recognizing that they’re the Republican base can help us understand which groups we should target.

As a “glass is half empty and there’s a spot on it” person, even I am optimistic about the chances for Democrats because Republican policies are generally unpopular and also their base is pretty old. This doesn’t mean that Democrats have a slam-dunk ability to win in 2026 and 2028. It just means that the odds are ever in our favor.

Also, a meta note: I want everyone to be able to comment to their heart’s content on this site. So we’re going to start having open threads where you can post whatever you’d like. As I’ve written before, I’m shit at building community. So I’m going to take the lead from Key and all of you to try to build a place where we can have good conversations and also post interesting links that people might like. It’s a work in progress, and I appreciate everyone’s patience as we try to strike a good balance. Thanks for reading, and here’s a video:

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