Gender gap widens among youngest US voters ahead of election

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00:00Is there such a thing as the male or female vote?

00:07Of course there is.

00:08The research says yes.

00:10Here at France 24, Emerald Maxwell breaks down the figures for us.

00:15The gap is now in the double digits in several recent polls, with more and more men leaning

00:20for Trump and women for Harris.

00:23An NBC poll showed that men favoured Trump over Harris by 12 points, while women preferred

00:28Harris by 21.

00:30An overall gap of 33 points.

00:33Trump's history of personal attacks against women, and the long list of sexual assault

00:37allegations against him, has alienated many.

00:40But most polarising is his record on women's rights, particularly the Supreme Court decision

00:46taking away the constitutional right to abortion.

00:48The court handed down a victory for the constitution, a victory for the rule of law, and above all,

00:56a victory for life.

00:58A decision which Trump has proudly taken credit for, while Kamala Harris has come out strongly

01:03against it.

01:04One does not have to abandon their faith or deeply held beliefs to agree that government

01:11should not be telling women what to do with their body.

01:14There's not much that the Republicans can do to walk back what's already been done.

01:19Donald Trump's nomination of three conservative Supreme Court justices have really opened

01:25up Pandora's box.

01:26The gender gap is even wider among Gen Z.

01:29Donald Trump's performative masculinity has proven popular among young men, an effect

01:34that grew after the assassination attempt on him in July.

01:38Trump has been increasingly courting this demographic, appearing alongside male-centric

01:42podcasters and influencers, and wrestler Hulk Hogan.

01:46When they took a shot at my hero, make America great again.

01:52Polls show increasingly that as women progress, young men feel they've been left behind, and

01:57don't feel served by the Democrats' focus on inclusion and diversity.

02:03There is lots to discuss.

02:04Let's bring in Fraser Jackson, our correspondent in Washington, watching all the developments

02:08for us.

02:09Of course, we join him at his place at the White House there in the background.

02:13Fraser, great to see you.

02:14This gender gap that Emerald was talking about in the report, some 33 points or thereabouts.

02:20What age group is this gender gap most visible in?

02:25Yeah, well, that age gap, of course, visible throughout the electorate, but it is that

02:31young tranche that Emerald was saying at the end of that report that really is where things

02:35start to come into stark relief.

02:37You'll see that there are now eight million more Gen Zers who are eligible to vote just

02:41since the midterms in 2022.

02:44And it is actually an age group, which in the men, particularly, is skewing actually

02:48more conservative now, and they're tending to walk away somewhat from the Democratic

02:51Party.

02:52One recent poll from the Harvard Youth Poll, which is deemed by many as the gold standard,

02:58showed that 26 percent of men were more likely between the ages of 18 to 24 to say that they

03:04were Republican.

03:05That's two points more than said they were Democrats.

03:07And 48 percent said that they would recognize themselves as more moderate.

03:13And the reason for this, really, is that this youth vote is used to this political

03:18turmoil that we are seeing in the United States, which for many and the older generations is

03:22seen as a bit of a blip over the last decade.

03:24For them, it is the status quo.

03:26Remember when Donald Trump came onto the scene, they were eight, nine, 10 years old.

03:30So this is what they are used to seeing.

03:32So that really means that these young voters are really in the Democrats, in the Republican

03:37Party, sorry, because they like Donald Trump.

03:40This is not the same kind of electorate that we're seeing with the older voters who used

03:43to be the Reagan style of Republican or the George Bush style of Republican.

03:47These really are here for Donald Trump themselves, for Donald Trump himself.

03:51And that is really because they see his personality as somebody who's been rebellious.

03:55That's something that resonates with them.

03:57And that is reflected by Donald Trump, in turn, by the podcast people that he's talking

04:02to, the so-called manosphere of influencers that he is surrounding himself with.

04:07And the right wing is doing a much better job at resonating with those young men who

04:11feel alienated and feel somewhat emasculated, and is better at talking about their mental

04:16health issues, about the fact, you know, that potentially they aren't getting into the colleges

04:21they wanted to.

04:22It's harder to find jobs.

04:23That is something that actually the Democrats are not doing as good a job of.

04:27They're also talking about a lack of strong male role models on the Democratic side of

04:33the party.

04:34And again, if you've been growing up from age eight, nine, ten, all you really know

04:37is the Democratic ticket is not the hope years of Obama in 2008 and 2012, but rather Joe

04:43Biden and Hillary Clinton and now Kamala Harris.

04:46So an altogether different picture for this electorate, especially in that younger age

04:51group.

04:53And how can the campaigns, both of them, Trump, Harris, how can they try to close this gap?

04:59Because it's essential if one of them wants to sort of steal that march and get into that

05:03White House.

05:07I think it's fair to say that Harris definitely has more more paths forward and more inroads

05:12into that electorate than Donald Trump has.

05:14Donald Trump is very much playing for that young male base.

05:18He's not really making much of an effort to try to resonate with female voters.

05:22He, of course, has had a couple of rallies in the last couple of weeks where he said,

05:26women, I'm going to be your protector.

05:28That came off quite patronizingly to the to the female voters that I've spoken to in recent

05:32days.

05:33So the fact that the Donald Trump is the one who overturned Roe v. Wade and has taken taken

05:39the the victory laps for that in the past, that is really definitely holding a being

05:45held against him.

05:47So he really will not get much more of a sliver unless he changes tack.

05:51But Kamala Harris definitely has some ways forward.

05:54She could move into that more podcast space where these young voters tend to be getting

06:00most of their news from more social media.

06:02And she has started to do that in some way.

06:04She did a Wired autocorrect interview online recently.

06:07Tim Walls, we saw, did another podcast, the Subway Tracks podcast as well.

06:12But they're trying to court more of that young vote by getting through to that younger electorate

06:17by, you know, mentioning things like football.

06:20That's what Doug, the second gentleman, has been talking about.

06:24And Tim Walls is, of course, trying to push his own kind of brand of Midwestern masculinity

06:28to resonate to those voters in those key swing states as well.

06:32So there is still ground to make up, but the time now really is starting to run out

06:36just over a month away from the election.

06:37We're now 35 days away.

06:39So time is starting to slip by.

06:42Fraser Jackson, time is slipping by, but nothing's getting past you.

06:45I can tell.

06:46Thank you very much indeed.

06:47Great to see you, sir.

06:48Fraser Jackson there near the White House, the gender gap, trying to close it.

06:54Thanks to Fraser Jackson, who's watching all developments for us.

06:56We, of course, will continue to cover the campaign from all angles right up until that

07:00voting date, November the 5th.

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