Men ages 18 to 29 favored Democratic House candidates by 22 points in the Nov. 3 midterms, a Tufts University analysis estimated, offering a new measure of young voters’ role in U.S. elections.
The Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE) based its estimate on NORC’s Civic Health & Elections Project data. It found 59% of young men who voted chose a Democratic candidate, compared with 37% who chose a Republican.
The economy and jobs ranked highest in CIRCLE’s survey of young voters’ concerns: 52% included them among the country’s top three issues. Health care was selected by 42%, and the war in Iran by 27%. Among young men, 31% named the war as a priority, compared with 23% of young women. These responses record issue choices; they cannot establish whether those concerns drove votes.
CIRCLE’s analysis of AP VoteCast data found that 56% of young men voted for Donald Trump in the 2024 presidential election and 42% for Kamala Harris. The comparison with 2026 House races does not track individual voters, and differences in turnout could account for some of the gap.
A separate Associated Press Voter Poll by SSRS found about seven in 10 voters under 30 backed Democratic House candidates, while about three in 10 backed Republicans. CIRCLE estimated that young voters accounted for 11% of ballots cast in 2026, compared with 12% in the 2022 midterms. The group’s share is not the percentage of eligible young people who voted. CIRCLE described the 2026 result as a return to the pattern of young voters favoring Democrats by at least 25 points in each national election from 2018 through 2022, after a narrower youth vote in 2024. An earlier EconoTimes article examined a CNBC poll on President Donald Trump’s approval among young, Latino and Black voters.
Reuters reported that both parties view young men as important to their prospects in the 2028 presidential race. The news agency also reported that New York state Sen. James Skoufis helped lead the Democratic National Committee’s young-voter outreach. Skoufis told Reuters, “They want deliverables.” Reuters reported he cited ending Trump’s tariffs and lowering housing costs as actions young voters would expect from Democrats.
NORC said its project surveyed more than 110,000 registered voters across all 50 states during the week before Election Day. The incoming Congress is due to head to Washington in January, NORC said.
