Young Americans Turned Against The GOP In The Midterms. Even Trump’s 2024 Supporters Shifted.

Young Americans backed Democrats by an overwhelming margin in Tuesday's midterm elections, including young men who had helped President Donald Trump win the White House two years earlier.

An estimated 71% of voters aged 18 to 29 supported Democratic candidates for the U.S. House, compared with 25% who voted Republican, according to Tufts University's Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE).

The 46-point advantage was the largest Democratic margin among young voters recorded in the center's national-election comparisons.

It also marked a major change from 2024, when Trump made gains among younger Americans and reduced the Democratic advantage in the presidential race.

Young men were part of the shift. A separate CIRCLE analysis released Wednesday found that 63% voted for Democratic House candidates, while 75% of young women did the same.

In the 2024 presidential election, 56% of young men had supported Trump, according to AP VoteCast figures cited by the researchers.

The findings are based on preliminary election-day survey data and could change as more results become available.

The Associated Press Voter Poll, which surveyed roughly 80,000 voters across all 50 states, also found that about seven in 10 voters under 30 supported Democratic House candidates.

Most young voters said they cast their ballots to express opposition to Trump. Around half were angry about the direction of the country, compared with roughly a third of voters aged 65 and older.

Economic problems were at the center of the election for many Americans. Four in 10 voters identified the economy as the country's biggest problem, while roughly three in 10 named the state of democracy.

About half considered the cost of living and government corruption crucial to their congressional vote. Immigration enforcement, the Iran war and AI data centers ranked lower on that measure.

The financial pressure facing young Americans was apparent even before Election Day. An October Harvard Youth Poll found that 91% of registered young voters who said they had at least a 50-50 chance of voting considered the cost of living important to their decision. Government corruption followed at 88%.

Among young people who said they would definitely vote, 70% described the cost of living as extremely important, while 61% said the same about corruption.

Harvard's survey of 2,024 Americans aged 18 to 29 also showed that younger voters trusted Democrats more than Republicans on the cost of living, health care expenses and government corruption.

But the findings did not amount to an endorsement of everything Democrats were doing. Around two-thirds of young Americans surveyed disapproved of the party's performance in Congress.

Opposition to Trump was another major factor in Tuesday's election. The AP poll found that about four in 10 voters overall said their congressional vote was intended to express opposition to the president. Fewer than two in 10 said they wanted to demonstrate support for him.

The survey also found that roughly seven in 10 voters believed Congress was not doing enough to check presidential power. That view was shared by most independents and about four in 10 Republicans.

Younger Americans still represented a relatively small share of the electorate. CIRCLE estimated that voters under 30 accounted for 10% of all votes cast in the midterms, down from 12% in 2022. The researchers cautioned that a smaller share does not necessarily mean youth turnout declined, particularly if overall participation increased.

The shift extended beyond young men. According to CIRCLE, 62% of young white voters backed Democratic House candidates, compared with 34% who voted Republican. In the 2024 presidential election, 54% of young white voters had supported Trump.

Democrats also gained strong support from younger Americans without college degrees. CIRCLE found that 69% of voters whose highest qualification was a high school diploma supported Democratic House candidates, compared with 26% who backed Republicans.