• Generation X and younger voters have shifted to the right in recent polls, favoring Trump more than in 2020.
• Economic concerns and social media strategies have influenced Gen Z’s political change.
• Meanwhile, Generation X was already the most disapproving of President Joe Biden.

THE 2024 election saw big changes in the way generations voted, early exit poll data is suggested.

Democrats lost a lot of ground with Gen Z, while Republicans gained Gen baby boomers were actually more likely to vote Democratic than they were four years ago.

The findings challenge some long-held stereotypes about the generations’ political positions. For example, the Generation Z presumed progressive showed more conservative tendencies this election than the last, and aging baby boomers dodged the idea that they become more conservative with age.

To be sure, early exit poll data has a wide margin of error. As more votes are counted in the coming days and months, more precise data on the shape of the 2024 electorate will be released.

Younger voters and those entering middle age are moving strongly to the right. Generation X — who slightly favored President-elect Donald Trump by a one-point margin in 2020 — shifted 9 points in favor of Trump this cycle. Gen Z favored Vice President Kamala Harris by 11 points, compared to President Joe Biden’s 24 points.

Meanwhile, millennials and their baby boomer parents were less likely to turn to Trump. Millennials favored Harris by one point, five points less than Biden’s six-point margin in 2020. Boomers went from supporting Trump by five points in 2020 to a tie between the two candidates this year, and were the only age group to support Harris by a point. voted more Democratic.

Gen Z’s big rightward shift wasn’t entirely unexpected. Twenty years ago, teenagers were twice as likely to identify as more conservative than their parents, compared to millennials. Gallup and Walton Family Foundation study conducted last fall.

The Trump campaign has focused on this age group. Andrew Heyward, former president of CBS News, said The New York Times that Trump has become an “evolving media master” for partnering with influencers and online personalities. Trump has frequently appeared on podcasts, streams and TikToks consumed mainly by Gen Z and millennial audiences, including The Joe Rogan Experience.

This strategy may have convinced young voters that the Republican Party gets them better than the Democrats. “People don’t really vote for what they want, they vote for who they are,” Jason Brennan, professor of strategy, public policy and economics at the University’s McDonough School of Business, told BI from Georgetown.

“I think a lot of young men are looking at the Democrats’ messaging and are turned off by it,” Brennan said, and that could explain at least part of the generational shifts.

Gen X parents of Gen Z — or at least some of them — also lean right, as forgotten middle child generations have radically turned towards Trump.

Gen Xers have already disapproved of Biden the most among generations, according to late 2023 poll from NPR, PBS NewsHour and Marist.

Their role is stuck between caring for children and aging parents has them in a particularly precarious economic situation. They are the generation most likely to say that they do not feel financially secure. Many fear saving for retirement, while some continue to be stressed about purchasing a home. Some aspire to the success of their baby boomer parents and the Silent Generation, Amy Walter, a nonpartisan political analyst at The Cook Political Report, told NPR.

Meanwhile, the situation for baby boomers is a bit more of a headache, according to Brennan. Their shift could be explained by a grim demographic reality: Baby boomer men are more likely to die earlier than their female counterparts, and women tend to be more likely to vote Democratic than men. But, more broadly, the results could also be attributed to a lack of enthusiasm.

“What it takes to win is you have to get your base out, and then you have to get influential voters to turn to you,” Brennan said.

Are you a Gen Z who has moved to the right or a Baby Boomer who has moved to the left? Contact these journalists at [email protected] And [email protected].