For the past week, conservative Twitter has been engaged in an ongoing argument over whether a burrito should cost $20.

It started when Andrew Kolvet, a Turning Point USA executive, shared a post that said: “A burrito shouldn’t cost $20.” Washington Post columnist Marc Thiessen responded that college students already have food in their meal plans. Ben Shapiro said that if you’re paying $20 for a burrito, you’re “doing life wrong.” Rep. Dan Crenshaw told people to get a job and eat ramen. Then JD Vance called Thiessen fat. People posted Chipotle receipts and burrito recipes. It was a bit like old Twitter.

But skipping the guac isn’t really the point–it’s about how people experience the economy in their daily lives, one lunch at a time.

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Are Burritos or Pizzas Luxuries?

People don’t need to turn on CNBC to see that specific items have gotten more expensive, particularly an item usually bought one at a time. They experience inflation when they buy groceries, fill up the gas tank, or their rent goes up.

But the data, of course, is real. As Forbes wrote:

“Consumer prices, for example, were up 3.5% year-over-year through June, according to recent data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, with food prices up 3%, energy prices up 15.7% and gasoline prices jumping 26.7%. Inflation-adjusted hourly earnings, meanwhile, were essentially flat. And according to an analysis from Democratic staff on Congress’ Joint Economic Committee, families have spent more than $3,500 extra on everyday essentials since early 2025.

Arguing that young Americans should view burritos – a long-time staple of the diet of young people, especially young men, for decades – as a luxury is likely to go over about as well as saying that if millennials would just make coffee at home and stop eating avocado toast, they could afford a house. In SAM’s focus groups, we’re hearing from young men who say that ordering pizza, traditionally another low-cost staple, is giving them pause.

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The Danger in Telling People Not to Believe their Eyes

It’s worth noting that the original post from Kolvet – the operational head of the sophisticated conservative juggernaut targeting young voters that is Turning Point – made this point: “Yeah, a lot of this is a hangover from Covid and Biden-era inflation, but the lived experience is the same: It just feels like basic things cost too much.”

An enduring lesson of many political fights of recent decades is that voters resent being told that their experience is stupid or made up in their head–an argument conservatives made against Biden in 2024.

Young men are particularly susceptible to political messages arguing that elites don’t respect them. Online politics–mostly from the right–has spent years telling them to interpret ordinary frustrations as evidence that the system is contemptuous of them.

But the party and candidates that are best able to channel the very real frustrations and anxiety about what the Beltway calls “affordability” is yet to be determined. Republicans did it in the last election, but it’s yet to be seen if Democrats can change that in the next.

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Young men are at the forefront of that gambling activity. But it would be a mistake to assume that opposing regulations on gambling and prediction markets is the recipe for winning a majority of their votes. More than half the demographic has never placed a bet online, and strong majorities favor regulating the industry, perhaps because they have an up-close view of its dangers.

Half of Young Men Gamble Online, Twice the Rate of the Overall Population, and Troubling Behaviors Among Those Who Do Bet are Widespread

In a May 2026 focus group, a 25-year-old Black man in New York said:

“It is the thrill of making a bet and then watching to see if your prediction comes true or not... I love how it makes me feel, it makes me take greater interest in the sport when I have money riding on it.”

According to a 2026 poll by the Siena Research Institute, of men 18-49:

• 52% have an online sportsbook account, compared to 27% of the overall population. Of those, 89% have ever actually placed a bet, compared to 83% of the overall population, for a rate of 46% of young men who have an account and have placed an online bet compared to 22% of the overall population.

• 35% who have an account actually have 3 or more accounts

There are also some areas of real concern. Of men 18-49 who do bet online:

• 68% say they place a bet with an online sports book at least once a week

• 43% say they win more than they lose. However, according to a study of 700,000 gamblers, only 4% win more than they lose.

• 29% say they deposit money into their account weekly or even more often

• 79% have placed prop bets (bets on events within a game)

• 36% have ever bet $500 or more in a day

• 36% have had someone express concerns about their online gambling

• 33% have lied to someone about their online gambling

• 49% have ever felt bad or ashamed after losing a bet in online gambling

• 31% have lost money in a bet that made it hard for them to fulfill financial obligations

• 20% have sought help for problem gambling

• 63% say they utilize in-app features designed to cool off

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Nevertheless, Young Men are Not Completely Supportive of Online Gambling

In another May 2026 focus group, a 20-year-old man in California said,

“It is the dopamine factor... it’s promoted at its most. You see streamers and content and influencers promoting this to young children and people my age... it can lead into addiction. I think it’s bad. I think gambling is bad.”

The Sienna survey found that of men 18-49:

• 40% say sports commentators offering remarks on sports gambling and potential bets during live games is bad for sports, compared to 48% of the overall population

• 70% say online sports betting will end up creating compulsive gamblers that will cause pain to them and their families–the same percentage as the overall population

• 55% say online sports betting will corrupt organized sports–almost the same as 56% for the overall population

• 67% say online sports betting should be legal in all 50 states, compared to 50% of the overall population

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Young Men Are Even More Supportive of Regulating Sports Books and Prediction Markets than Other Demographics

The Sienna survey also found that despite their relatively high participation in online sports betting:

• 73% of men 18-49 support subjecting prediction markets such as Kalshi, Polymarket etc. to the same state regulations which apply to other sports betting activities for as long as they allow users to profit on predicting the outcomes of sporting events. This is notably higher than the 65% of the overall population

• 66% support the SAFE Bet Act to establish federal regulations for online sports books such as limiting in-game ads and deposit limits, compared to 64% of the overall population

Similarly, a May 20206 Change Research survey found that only 23% of men 18-34 have used or even considered prediction markets, compared to 10% of the population. 70% of the same demographic said that prediction markets were “essentially a form of gambling”--the highest of any age/gender demographic, with only 52% of women 50-64 agreeing. Similarly, 62% of young men said the government should ban or heavily regulate prediction markets, while 45% of women 50-64 say the same.

And the youngest adults seem to be the most critical. A Politico survey found that compared to the 33% of Americans aged 25-34 (of any gender) who would not bet on a prediction market, 41% of those 18-24 say the same. Similarly, while 29% of those 25-34 say the government should make stricter requirements about who can place bets and what people can bet on, 34% of those 18-24 agree. 33% of those 25-34 say prediction markets are gambling platforms no different than sportsbooks and casinos (e.g. MGM, DraftKings), but 38% of those 18-24 say the same.

Age, rather than gender appears to be the bigger dividing line on gambling and prediction markets. According to a Politico survey, there is an 8 point gap (24% for men, 16% for women) who say prediction markets allowing US adults to bet on sports, elections and other events is positive for American society. This is much more significant than the 21 point gap in age (28% of those 18-34, 7% of those 65+). Similarly, while there is only a 6 point gap between the percentage of men (50%) and women (56%) who say they would not consider placing a bet on a prediction market, it’s only 33% of those 25-34, but 81% of those aged 65+.

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Excerpt below, read it in its entirety here.

Republicans have owned the “pro-family” narrative for a generation, usually as an evasive way of speaking about culturally conservative issues in ways that have to do with sex and sexuality. The implicit message was that the GOP takes families seriously.

Young men got it. According to a 2025 NBC poll, Gen Z men who voted for Trump ranked having children as important personal goals while their female counterparts didn’t rank those aspirations at all. Their desire is real. This is a generation that wants to start families and isn’t sure it can.

The government has now gone out of its way to protect glyphosate and insulate producers from legal challenge all while telling young men that demographic collapse is civilization’s defining crisis.

If we take the pronatalist argument at face value, then defending Bayer is the most anti-natalist thing this administration has done.

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But it would be a mistake for progressives to write off the UFC and its fans. They are more numerous than people might imagine and more passionate. They are also not uniformly Trump supporters or Republicans, and neither are its fighters.

Reaching young men–or any community beyond the Democratic base–requires engaging in spaces that not everyone is comfortable with. And that’s okay.

Trump has a Genuine Relationship with the UFC

President Trump has had a long relationship with the UFC. He is personal friends with Dana White. In the 2024 campaign, UFC stars Roman Reigns, Sean Strickland, Colby Covington, Kamaru Usman, and Conor McGregor supported him.

UFC is Quite Popular Among Younger Men, and Its Fans are Not as Conservative as Liberals Might Imagine

Echelon Insights found in 2024 that 2 in 5 men under 50 said they watched UFC or MMA, and just over 1 in 5 watched pro wrestling. That same survey found relatively small differences by party and ideology: 17 percent of Republicans and 15 percent of Democrats said they watched UFC, and 20 percent of Trump voters compared to 14 percent of Harris voters.

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Morning Consult found in 2026 that while the UFC was tied for the 8th place among sports leagues’ favorability in the US, it was tied with NASCAR for 4th place on “very favorable”--in other words, its fans are particularly passionate.

In 2023, Sportico and the Harris Poll found that UFC fans were slightly more liberal than their perception, and in fact, were right in line with the national average identifying as conservative (55 percent).

Not Everyone in the UFC is Supportive of the White House Match

Fighter Bryce Mitchell said,

“Our government is desecrating its role in society by entertaining sports. Our government is to protect and serve the people, and really should be as minimal as possible. They’re doing all this stuff hosting sporting events–it’s really outside the goal of what the government was intended to be, because our tax dollars and resources are funding this operation. [...] The government is supposed to protect us, not entertain us.”

Mitchell had soured on Trump in 2025, saying:

“I do not like the guy at all. The first thing for me was he didn’t release the Epstein files. They’re even acting like they didn’t exist. And, of course, they’re sending Israel and Ukraine all of our tax dollars just like the numb-nuts before him did. Putting America last, and now he’s blaming the beef farmers for the price of beef. Hey, I’m not biased, man. He talked a good game, he tricked me. I was fooled. I admit it.”

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While Talarico is a phenomenal talent who has run an excellent campaign, they will need allies to join the fight, particularly when it comes to the brass-knuckle fighting for the votes of young men.

The Gap Democrats Need to Close in Texas Is Smaller Than It Looks

James Talarico will face Ken Paxton in November. Polling currently puts Talarico even or ahead of Paxton. While those numbers may seem hard to sustain, there is reason for optimism.

In 2024, Ted Cruz defeated Colin Allred by 8.5 points (53%–45%). In the presidential race, Trump carried Texas by 14 points. The Senate gap being smaller than the presidential one indicates that Texas Senate races are structurally competitive in ways the presidential race in the state is not.

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Young Men in Texas Moved More Heavily to Trump in 2024 than Nationally — Which Means They Have the Most Room to Move Back

In Texas in 2024, young men comprised 7 percent of the Texas vote. According to Catalist, 44 percent of those young men supported Harris in 2024. But exit polls showed even more dramatic numbers. Among male Texas voters under 30, Trump’s support went from 33% in 2020 to 60% in 2024 — a 27-point swing — and higher than the 56% support Trump received nationally from young men.

Cruz reflected this: he carried men overall by 21 points (59%–38%) while losing women to Allred (52%–44%). Allred’s best age group was voters 18–29, but his margins were nowhere near what Democrats needed.

Texas has a median age of 35.1, making it the 4th youngest state in the country. And Texas gains roughly 68,000 young adults (22–35) annually through domestic migration—more than almost any other state—as people relocate from California and other expensive coastal metros.

Young men, in other words, are the largest reservoir of potentially movable votes in the Texas electorate.

Virginia and New Jersey Show What a 7-9 Point Swing and Increased Youth Turnout Looks Like

In November 2025, Abigail Spanberger won the governor’s race in Virginia by 14.4 points. In 2024, Kamala Harris had carried the state by just 5.8 points — meaning Spanberger outperformed by roughly 8.6 points. In New Jersey, Mikie Sherrill won by 13.5 points in a state Harris had carried by about 6 — a roughly 7.5-point swing. Among young men, Spanberger won 58 percent and Sherrill won 57 percent. Those are the margins Democrats would need to flip Texas’s Senate seat.

And after youth turnout dropped in both states between 2020 and 2024 elections (from 56 to 55 in Virginia and 67 to 54 in New Jersey), it increased from the 2021 to 2025 election (from 27 to 34 in Virginia and 20 to 29 in New Jersey).

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The Rogan Factor: A Texas-Based Mega-Fan, and an Audience That Is More Persuadable Than It Looks

Talarico leapt to the national stage when he appeared on Joe Rogan’s show in June of 2025. In the episode, which has been viewed 1.2 million times, Rogan told Talarico (a state representative) that he “need[ed] to run for president.” Rogan has continued to promote Talarico since. Rogan has a personal interest in the race: he lives in Austin.

Rogan’s podcast was the #1 show on both Spotify and Apple Podcasts in 2025, commands 14.5 million Spotify followers, and drew over 40 million YouTube views with his 2024 Trump interview. His audience is 80% male and 56% ages 18–34. In SAM’s 2025 research, Rogan was the number 1 podcast listened to by men 18-29 by a wide margin, at 38%, with little variation by race.

While 54% of weekly Rogan listeners leaned Trump to 26% for Harris in a late October 2024 poll, 35% identified as independent and 27% as Democrat. This is not a fixed Republican audience. It is a persuadable one. Morning Consult’s analysis found that Rogan fans are among the most politically persuadable listeners of any major podcast.

Texas is Winnable, And We Should be Investing in Targeting Young Men to Do It

The case is not that Texas is easy. It’s that Texas is possible in 2026 in a way it hasn’t been in decades: the swing required is one Democrats recently achieved in two states; Texas’s demographics structurally amplify the impact of young male voters more than almost anywhere else; and that the media ecosystem those voters actually inhabit is more contested than it appears from the outside.

But while the environment is favorable, none of these shifts happen on their own, and Republicans will obviously fight for the seat. A traditional, broadcast-based campaign is likely prohibitively expensive in a state the size of Texas, making a targeted digital campaign aimed specifically at this cohort even more necessary than elsewhere.

In a race decided by 5–8 points on a statewide electorate of roughly 11 million total votes, a shift of even 10 points among young men — well below the swings seen in 2025 Virginia — would move the statewide margin by approximately 1.4 points. Combined with other anti-Trump midterm headwinds, young men are not the whole story, but they could be the difference.

But the Talarico camp likely can’t do all this on their own. More than any other candidate, Talarico’s niceness is his brand, but that may not be sufficient when faced with the torrent of personal negativity to come from the Paxton camp. This is where third party players can, and must, step in to fill the gap to negatively define Paxton, especially with hard to reach audiences like young men, a task SAM is precisely designed to accomplish.

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While these trends affect all of Gen Z, perhaps because it is so central to narratives of self-sufficiency and providing, there does seem to be more anger among young men than young women in the polling we can see (see the Change Research data below).

This deep frustration can’t be dismissed as simply feelings or the typical dissatisfaction of youth: Gen Z truly is dealing with an economy and society that are significantly different from those of older generations. But that frustration increasingly isn’t targeted at an amorphous “system” but directly at older Americans, and specifically at entitlements. Because of that, Gen Z is much more open to cutting them than their predecessors.

As this generation gains increasing electoral power, Democrats should consider how to channel Gen Z’s frustration and offer real solutions before the anger bubbles over.

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The Third Rail – Cutting Social Security

The Social Security trust fund is due to run out in 2033, and declining birth rates mean there will be fewer workers to support the growing aging population. In response, almost half of Gen Z supports cutting benefits to current recipients. While Gen Z doesn’t have the electoral power now to make that change, those in Gen X and slightly younger should be aware that this generational conflict is on the horizon.

Notable From the Right

It’s notable that Ben Domenech – opinion editor at the Daily Wire and husband to Meghan McCain – posted “If you were born before JFK was shot you are eating up our tax dollars and putting it all on your grandkids’ credit score.”

JD Vance articulates the challenges to Gen Z, including jobs and housing affordability (although his solutions generally involve deporting more immigrants), while major right-funder Peter Thiel said, “Capitalism is not working for a lot of people in New York City. It’s not working for young people.” Tim Dillon – who supported Trump but has since been critical – has brutally criticized boomers and their large homes.

@clipsforlibertyTim Dillon rants to Tucker Carlson about baby boomers and their grip on the housing market and economy. #timdillon #tuckercarlson #boomers #babyboomer #realestate #economy #housing #biden #pelosi #mcconnell #comedy #fyp

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“OK Boomer” Is a War Cry

Americans under 40 hold about 6.7% of US wealth, less than a third of the 21% boomers held when they were the same age in 1989. Not surprisingly, the homeownership rate for young adults has fallen dramatically: the median age for new homeowners is 40 years old, an all-time high. Gen Z faces home prices that are roughly 5x median income nationally — compared to 3–4x for when Boomers were entering the market. Despite the disproportionate wealth of older Americans, they also receive an additional tax deduction over younger Americans earning the same amount, as well as property tax deductions.

The unemployment rate for recent college grads now exceeds that of all workers (5.6 to 4.1 percent), a reversal of historic norms. Senator Mark Warner estimates that recent college graduate unemployment will increase from 9% to 30% in the next two years. Only 20% say now is a good time to find a quality job, down from 62% just five years earlier, and the inability to find a job early in one’s career often has a “scarring” effect on later employment. Gen Z faces a labor market where a bachelor’s degree is now required for jobs that previously did not require one, while the wage premium for that degree has declined. Even the New York Times featured a scathing video on the conflict, titled, “Thanks a Lot, Boomers.”

A 2024 Change Research survey found that 69% of men aged 18-34 (and 59% of women the same age) agreed that “Older generations are hoarding wealth.” 77% of young men and 62% of young women agreed that “Government policy is the reason older generations had it much easier than young people do today.” PRRI found in 2023 that 58% of Gen Z agreed that “We won’t be able to solve the country’s big problems until the older generation no longer holds power.”

Here is a TikTok with 172,000 likes explaining why homeownership is more expensive for Gen Z than older generations.

@fmsmith3191980 vs 2024 home prices and interest rates

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This generational tension isn’t limited to the United States: in France, the cry is “Nicolas foots the bill” while retirees “Bernard and Chantal” live la bon vie.

Greta Thunberg was an early proponent of the argument, when she declared at the UN, “You are failing us. But the young people are starting to understand your betrayal. The eyes of all future generations are upon you. And if you choose to fail us, I say: We will never forgive you.”

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Congressman Ryan, who has written the books The Real Food Revolution and Healing America, wrote last month, “Republicans see MAHA, the ‘make America healthy again’ movement, as a rare cultural wedge that resonates outside the party’s Maga base. The GOP’s own polling memos show that Kennedy’s movement could be their single most promising midterm strategy. But behind the headlines, Republicans are trying to have it both ways. They’re seeking to be known as the party of healthy food while continuing to do the bidding of lobbyists from big agribusinesses, ultra-processed foodmakers, and the chemical industry.”

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MAHA is Fracturing and Souring on Trump

The MAHA movement coalesced around Trump in 2024 largely due to the alliance he struck with RFK Jr. who has been a mainstay of the movement. However, since then the MAHA movement has soured on Trump’s presidency. The Administration move to increase production of glyphosate was a big piece of the division, as it was viewed as treachery by leaders of the MAHA movement. Additionally, the Trump administration has cut $900 billion from Medicaid and cut the roles of federal officials responsible for food safety.

Young Men Like MAHA and Are Very Focused on Health

Young men find a lot of appeal in MAHA. SAM’s research found that 34% of men 16-29 consider themselves to be a member of the MAHA movement. This is higher than their alignment with MAGA (29%) and higher than their female peers (29%). And MAHA’s appeal is not limited to the right: SAM’s research of young voters shows 24% of Harris supporters identified as supporting MAHA.

When asked about the MAHA agenda 76% of men (of all ages) support encouraging physical activity (8 points higher than women), 66% support reducing additives and chemicals in foods, 62% support better mental health, and 59% support encouraging eating whole “real” foods. 92% of swing voters (of all ages and genders) support requiring labeling of harmful ingredients and chemicals in ultraprocessed foods, 79% support removing dyes and artificial ingredients from foods and beverages, and 78% removing toxic chemicals and pesticides. Removing childhood vaccine recommendations consistently ranks last, with only about 15% support. In focus groups, making food healthier and more affordable was a clear policy winner.

Gen Z overall is “obsessed” with their health, eating “clean,” drinking less than older generations and focused on exercise, all of which has led them to embrace the MAHA movement, even if they largely disagree with its rejection of vaccines.

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Young Men Are Specifically Focused on their Reproductive Health

Glyphosate is of particular interest to men: it has been shown to accumulate in sperm and reduce testosterone. And the Trump administration rolled back limits on PFAS, which age men faster than women.

There is a growing focus and concern among men, particularly younger ones, about their testosterone and sperm, and the environmental factors affecting them. There are sperm races, ostensibly to raise awareness of male fertility decline, many prominent figures in the manosphere raise concerns about male fertility and testosterone, and advertising from companies like Ro and Hims have made male sexual health an open conversation. Similarly, injecting peptides to increase strength has exploded into the mainstream.

Democrats Have Owned Healthy Living and Can Seize it Back Again

Democrats have traditionally had an advantage on the issue of clean eating and still have a 13 point advantage over Republicans on having a better approach to healthcare.

As the Congressman wrote, “Democrats need to seize the opportunity. The party should champion a coherent, practical agenda that makes healthy food and lower-toxin farming more affordable – by changing what government subsidizes, buys and enforces, not by lecturing families to ‘shop organic’. Think of the agenda in simple terms: make healthy food affordable.”

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Last week, the DNC released a comprehensive playbook on how organizing has become less effective in recent years and how to adjust moving forward. The report details how various contact methods used by the Harris campaign in 2024 fell short by demographic, shown in the chart below. As the report notes, “In 2024, the Harris campaign contacted 28% of Black women registered to vote over the age of 65; meanwhile, they contacted only 7.5% of Latino men registered under the age of 25.”

But the chart also demonstrates the degree to which Democrats are not even attempting to contact young men in particular, with approximately 45 percent of white men under 25 receiving no attempt at contact, but closer to 8 percent of Black women over 65 with no attempt at contact.

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Democrats Are Talking to Women More than Men in Every Age Bracket Men

Data from the American National Election Studies survey–which surveyed voters themselves, rather than party data–found that only 20.7 percent of men 18-29 said they were contacted by the Democratic party in 2024, compared to 23.43 percent of women the same age. In fact, at every age, the Democratic Party contacts women at a higher rate than men, while the Republican Party is the opposite.

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Young Men Don’t Believe the Democratic Party Cares About Them

The same ANES data shows that in a decade and a half, Democrats went from nearly all young men believing the presidential nominee cared about them to just under half. In 2008, 93 percent of men 18-29 said that the Democratic presidential candidate (Obama at the time) “really cares about people like you” moderately, very or extremely well. In 2024, that figure had dropped to 49 percent. But it wasn’t just about Kamala Harris: the number had been dropping for years, including for Biden, Clinton and even Obama’s second term.

Alternatively, in 2008, 55 percent of young men said that the Republican presidential candidate (McCain at the time) cared about them. In 2024 (Trump) it was 39–a 15 point drop, but just ⅓ that of Democrats.

Belief that Democrats cared fell for all men by 24 points over the same period, and by 11 for Republicans, so while there are clearly broader challenges for the party, it’s most acute among younger men.

It may not be surprising, then, that in 2008, men 18-29 reported feeling “warm” towards the Democratic party at a rate of 59 on a scale of 100. In 2024, that rating fell to 43. But the warmth did not transfer to the Republican party, which was at 45 in 2008 and 45 in 2024.

Why it Matters

Democrats may argue that the party’s positions have not changed, and that how much we care about voters, and young men in particular, hasn’t changed. But all that matters is what voters believe. Whether the party cares about voters is expressed in what we say, how we say it, and who we say it to. And if we’re not speaking to young men, we can’t expect them to feel that we care about or represent them.

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Read this excerpt and the Puck writeup here.

“A common sentiment surfaced across candid interviews with 55 young American men between the ages of 18 and 29, of all races and political backgrounds, some Trump voters and some not: Young people aren’t processing Iran as foreign policy. … They’re experiencing one reality. A government that has billions for bombs and nothing for their rent. Every dollar spent on the war registers as a dollar not spent on them. Trump’s “no new wars” promise was the clearest, most testable commitment he made to young voters. Its violation is now the anchor story for a broader trust collapse.”

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The past year has brought a flood of revelations about how much access the federal government has amassed over ordinary Americans’ data: Social Security records, Medicaid enrollment files, tax returns, immigration databases, payment systems processing trillions of dollars in transactions. Much of this expanded access has come through DOGE, which obtained entry into systems that privacy law experts say were never designed to be aggregated in one place. A Democratic Senate report released in September 2025 concluded that DOGE was “operating outside federal law” with respect to cybersecurity and privacy requirements.

But the data integration that allows for large scale surveillance is no longer theoretical: ICE is putting it into practice for government surveillance without significant public debate. In Minnesota, NPR reported, “Activists and journalists spoke of tactics they felt were intimidating: agents photographing their faces or license plates; calling them by name; or leading them to their homes. Immigration lawyers told NPR their clients had been subjected to facial recognition technology. One ICE agent, testifying under oath, spoke of an app that showed the likely home addresses of people targeted for deportation.” Someone who had been tracking ICE later had her Global Entry status revoked.

And Anthropic’s dispute with the Department of War was centered on Anthropic drawing a red line at using its tools for surveillance of Americans (as well as demanding human involvement when autonomous weapons are used).

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Young Americans are More Opposed to Government Surveillance than Older Americans

Older Americans may remember the furious debates over warrantless wiretapping in 2005 and the Snowden revelations of the bulk collection of virtually all American phone records in 2013. But for younger voters who were not aware (or born!) at the time, the far reach of government surveillance–even for a generation native to social media–is jarring.

Unlike the congressional debates two decades ago, this slide into government surveillance has occurred with little public debate or input from Americans. There has been relatively little public opinion polling on the issue, but a YouGov survey from June 2025 found that 52 percent of those 18-29 described collecting and analyzing phone and internet data as “an unnecessary intrusion” rather than a justified counterterrorism tool, and 58 percent said technology companies have a greater obligation to protect their consumers’ data privacy than to cooperate with the government in the fight against terrorism and crime. And only 41 percent said they would sacrifice more personal privacy if it resulted in less crime and terrorism, compared to 57 percent of those over 65.

This seems to be a change from just six years ago, when younger Americans were more accepting of data collection than older Americans.

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Tech-Focused Online Creators are Increasingly Focused on Tech-Enabled Surveillance

Despite the lack of legislative debate on the issue, online creators who are focused on technology and gaming–who likely have a clearer understanding of the capabilities of the tools at hand than most older Americans and legislators–are speaking out and getting attention.

One tech-focused TikTok account with over 6 million followers produced a video with the caption “OpenAI is working with the department of war!!” Another account with only 1250 followers racked up over 110,000 likes on this video focused on Palantir with the caption, “Freedom is not a right anymore.”

@carterpcsOpenAI is working with the department of war!! #carterpcs #tech #openai #pentagon #anthropic

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A tech-focused YouTube creator with 1.5 million followers posted a video “OpenAI Changing Their Tune” about the company “jumping into bed with the US government” that garnered 200,000 views in a day. A gaming-focused creator with 1.1 million followers posted “OpenAI Face Mass Boycott After Granting The Government AI-Driven Mass Surveillance…” which received 165,000 views in two days.

And on Reddit, r/technology, which has 5 million visitors a week, an article with the headline “Congress Is Considering Abolishing Your Right to Be Anonymous Online,” got 4300 upvotes in just a couple of hours. Another, r/privacy/ which brings in a million readers a week, posts about Flock are getting 14,000 upvotes.

These creators can be some of the strongest messengers to this audience.

Young People Understand How Data Can be Weaponized

For young men who came of age in the post-Snowden world, who grew up posting their lives online and then gradually learned what that data trail means and who can access it, the expansion of government’s reach into federal databases is not abstract. And it reinforces the same distrust of institutions that is endemic to their generation.

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A Lot of Trump’s Appeal to Young Men in Particular was Avoiding Unnecessary Wars

Trump campaigned in 2024 as a candidate who would end wars and his administration refers to him as the “President of Peace.” When Bloomberg analyzed popular men’s podcasts from the election, it found that “After voting, war was the most mentioned issue, appearing in 33% of highly-viewed videos. Broadcasters, who tended to be anti-war and isolationist, discussed geopolitics and global conflict [...] In eight out of nine shows, hosts and guests painted Trump as a peacekeeper, pushing the idea that there were no wars when he was serving as US president.”

In SAM’s October 2025 survey of men 16-29, “Avoiding unnecessary wars and conflicts” was the #2 issue they said would make them more likely to support a candidate, at 68% (affordable housing was #1 at 69%).

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Young Men Are Much More Isolationist Than in the Past

In 2024, 43 percent of men 18-29 said the US should not concern itself with world problems–a massive increase from just 2 percent in 1960, or 17 percent in 2002. Americans overall also increased opposition to foreign engagement in that period, but only from 18 to 32 points.

In 2025, half of men under 45 (51 percent) support withdrawing from NATO, 18 points higher than Americans overall. And only 52 percent strongly agree that a strong U.S. military is essential to maintaining peace and prosperity at home and abroad, 7 points lower than Americans overall. Americans under 45 (across genders) are 15 points less likely than older Americans to be very or somewhat supportive of the safety and mission success of American troops while they’re in other countries.

Young men also don’t necessarily share the same concerns about traditional US adversaries as older Americans. Asked who they want to win the war between Russia and Ukraine, 1 in 5 answer Russia, 13 points higher than Americans overall. And they are 11 points less concerned than other Americans about the overall threat China poses to the US. Similarly, they’re 10 points less likely to support the US defending Taiwan in case of a Chinese invasion because of the argument that the message it would send is that the US is not willing to stand up for its friends.

A Drift to War Would Most Impact Young American Men Who Could Potentially Be Called to Fight

Young American men have never lived with a draft–even their parents were too young. Nor did they experience the post-9/11 increase in militarism (and patriotism) in the wake of the terror attacks–the oldest Gen Zers were only five years old when the towers fell. In fact, young Americans of both genders are 34 points less likely than older Americans to prioritize taking measures to protect the United States from terrorist attacks.

Today only 13 percent of men aged 16-21 think they are likely to serve in the military in coming years, down from the 23 percent in 2003 and even the 20 percent of a decade ago. And Trump strongly denied that he was considering mandatory service when it was suggested. But the early days of wars are often the rosiest, followed by a reality of struggle and casualties. Militarism, expansion and isolationism are on a collision course, with young men at the epicenter.

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But the event unfurled under the backdrop of a declining sense of pride in America, particularly among young people. According to Gallup, pride in being American has fallen among all age cohorts in recent decades, but has plummeted among Gen Z, findings echoed by PRRI research.

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Even Amid Declining Patriotism, Fairness and Freedom are Still the Core American Values

PACE found in 2023 that Americans under 35 had much lower positive associations with “American” and “democracy,” but still relatively high positive ratings for terms like “freedom,” “equality” and “unity.”

In updated data, PACE and More in Common found “When Americans think about their ideal system, freedom and fairness are central to how democracy is understood and desired.”

According to a global survey of what makes people proud of their countries, Pew found that “Freedom is the top source of pride in the U.S. Americans are most proud of their freedom: 22% name this as a reason they are proud of their country. Many people say this in other countries, too, particularly in the Netherlands, Sweden and France. But the U.S. is the only surveyed country where freedom is the single most frequently mentioned source of pride.”

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“They Get a Party, You Get a Barbecue”

Just as he did with his 2024 campaign, Trump is infusing sports throughout the 2026’s 250th Anniversary celebrations. In addition to the Olympics, 2026 will feature:

• The World Cup (June 12-July 19)

• An MMA fight at the White House (June 14)

• A Grand Prix on the streets of Washington (Aug. 21-23)

• An event dubbed “Patriot Games” involving high schoolers (Fall)

But despite their populist appeal, viewing these events in person is likely to be a luxury of the elites: World Cup tickets are going for many thousands of dollars, Grand Prix events are notoriously expensive, and Trump events regularly include billionaires. As one member of SAM’s Youth Advisory Council put it, “they get a party, you get a barbecue.” It’s yet another party for elites that average Americans will watch from the outside, just as they are on the outside of the tremendous wealth being accumulated by Trump allies across sectors and by the masterminds behind AI.

Republicans Don’t Own Sports, Patriotism, Fairness or Freedom

Sports have always had a powerful role in civic life, going back to the original Olympics almost 3000 years ago. And fair competition has always been a central requirement, without which competition becomes meaningless.

Democrats can’t afford to concede sports or patriotism to Republicans. But there is a powerful argument to be made that fairness–in our politics, our sports, our economy, our law enforcement–and freedom–to speak, to choose, to associate–are the themes underlying all of the other Democratic positions. Those are values that all Americans relate to.

On the streets of Boston, 2/21/26

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“Republican pollsters lately are warning that you and the party is losing ground with young voters, particularly young men, who are concerned with job prospects and the rise of A.I.” [...] “what would you say to those young voters and those young men?”

Trump: Well, I’d say they’re rigged polls. Look, the polls are rigged just like the writers are rigged.

Katie Rogers: But these are Republican pollsters who are warning your party that you are not doing enough to focus on American jobs.

President Trump: I don’t know. I think, I think I can tell you I’m very popular. This just came out, from TikTok. It came out just recently that Donald Trump was No. 1 on TikTok and the most popular person. You can have these. I don’t think you’ll use it.”

The question appeared to be a reference to quotes in an article from the Hill:

Republican pollster Brett Lloyd: “If you’re 29 and you’re paying out the nose for health care, and you can’t own your own home and groceries are killing you, you don’t really care about the conversations about tariffs. That’s not where you’re living. You’re living at, ‘Hey, I need the price of eggs to drop,’” said Brett Loyd, a longtime Republican pollster who now works with an independent firm.

Executive director of Run GenZ Adam Pennings: “I think a lot of young people are wondering the same things,” Pennings said. “Why are we not focusing on the people in Pennsylvania? Why are we not focusing on the people in Ohio or California or wherever, right? Why are we even looking at Venezuela?”

Republican strategist Barrett Marson: “Young voters moved to Trump and the Republicans ostensibly for economic reasons” [...] “Well, now that Republicans control Washington, they have to deliver on that affordability message,” he said. “Do people believe that Republicans and Trump have addressed affordability in a way that impacts them? That’ll be the question.”

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Trump is Losing Ground, but It’s a Mistake for Democrats to Be Complacent

Indeed, Trump is dramatically losing ground with the Gen Z voters, as documented by pollsters including CNN, Vox and SAM’s own research. But those polls also show that Democrats’ approval ratings remain extremely low with this demographic. Without Trump on the ballot, Gen Z still needs a reason to vote for Democrats.

As Sarah Longwell wrote in “The Disappointment of Young Trump Voters,”

“What happens to these young voters now? That’s up to Democrats. I’m no policy hand, but I do know something about communications. Based on what I’ve heard in the focus groups, Democrats have a big opportunity with young people, because they’re some of the latest arrivals to Trump’s coalition. Democrats need to offer these voters a platform that addresses their concerns, while hammering Trump for his failure to do so.”

Those images were worth 1000 studies and academic papers.

Pretti’s actions, and the widespread praise for them, is evidence that progressive values and traditional masculinity aren’t at odds, and in fact, require fusing for democracy to survive.

As Brian Beutler wrote:

You don’t have to share Pretti’s politics (he was apparently a Democrat) to see the appeal of living life that way, rather than the way the people who killed and smeared him do. And if even a small fraction of young men started treating him (rather than them) as a role-model for comportment, it might actually save the country.

The question now is whether Democrats can catch up.

Democrats Have Been Accused of Being Opposed to Masculinity, Particularly Since 2024

Sebastian Junger, a former war correspondent and author of prototypically masculine books such as “The Perfect Storm” and “Fire,” recently wrote an essay titled, “Young Men And How The Democrats Lost Them”:

If Democrats want to reclaim [men’s] votes – and they must - they will have to figure out how to honor the rough, dangerous work men have been designated to do. If they want to win another national election, they will have to figure out how to admire the very qualities - courage, toughness, physical sacrifice – that every society needs.

No political party has ever succeeded by dismissing half the population. Democrats are no exception.

This isn’t just a debate among elites: in 2023, Ipsos found that 31% of Americans agreed that the Democratic Party was “hostile to masculinity,” while 34% disagreed. Focus groups by Third Way found young men say things like “I think being a masculine leader is, like, outlawed by the Democratic Party right now.” And SAM’s 2025 focus groups also found young men saying things like “Democrats tend to embrace more of, like, the fluid masculinity of being, like, empathetic and sensitive [...] Republicans are more like, the traditional masculinity of a provider, strong, and the machismo type.”

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Protecting and Standing up for Others Consistently Rank at the Top of Possible Definitions of Masculinity, With Physical Strength Ranking Near the Bottom

A 2025 GQ survey of American men of all ages asked how they define “masculine” found that the #1 response at 70% was Strong, while 62% said Confident, 59% said Protective; 56% said Tough and 52% said Responsible.

A 2024 Young Men Research Project survey of men 18-29 that asked what qualities best describe what it means to be a man found that the #1 response at 52% said “Protecting Your Family” (although only 15% said “Protecting Your Community”) and 25% said “Helping people who need it” (and only 5% said “Public service”). Physical strength ranked near the bottom at 11%.

And a 2025 survey from More in Common and Movember of both US and UK men and women that asked what traits are the most important that men try to exemplify nowadays found that #2 at 29% was “keeping loved ones safe” and #4 was “standing up for what’s right.” Again, standing up for your community came last at 5%.

A 2024 Pew survey found that 38% of Americans (men and women) said most people place too much value on men who are physically strong, while 19% said it was not enough.

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Numerous People Have Noted that Alex Pretti Embodied the Masculine Ideals of Protection

Tim Miller of the Bulwark said:

“The masculine guy was the guy standing up for the woman, doing what men should do, standing up for the woman that got pushed down, and then in exchange for his bravery, a bunch of pussies shot him dead and and unloaded 6 bullets into his dead body while he was laying on the ground. That’s what happened. Those are the emasculated men, and I wish we had more men like Alex Pretti, but unfortunately he’s dead.”

Crooked Media hosts said:

Alyssa Mastromonaco: Alex Pretti he stood up and he defended, as you pointed out, two women. More of a man than any of these men behind their masks brutalizing people, and just driving by and sneering at American citizens who are doing nothing but just standing there and bearing witness to what’s happening.

[...]

Ryan: Alex Pretti is a different vision of that. He got in between people who were actually trying to harm women. He put his body in between two women who were being roughed up between some fucking cowardly men who looked like they had no idea what they were doing. Who looked like they thought they were cosplaying a video game. That to me is boyhood. Those are fucking boys.

Liz Plank, under the headline “Alex Pretti Had More Balls Than Every ICE Agent Combined,” wrote,

Women and men agree that real masculinity has always been about responsibility. It’s about provision. It’s about protection. The willingness to place oneself between danger and the vulnerable.

Alex Pretti was not performing masculinity. He was practicing it. In his final moments, he did the simplest and most dangerous thing a man can do: protect a woman. The oldest masculine story there is. To see a damsel in distress and decide that her safety matters more than your own.

ICE defies every rule of masculinity Trump sold men. It does not protect the vulnerable or step between danger and harm. It relies on anonymity, force in numbers, and so-called immunity from any responsibility. It shoots unarmed caregivers filmed trying to help neighbors. That kind of violence is the opposite of protection, it is cowardice.

Adam McCormick wrote for the Good Men Project:

Pretti was present at a protest opposing aggressive immigration enforcement operations that have left immigrant communities across Minnesota living in a state of terror. Witness reports and video analysis show that when chaos erupted and two women were being attacked by ICE officers, Pretti stepped in. He did not escalate. He did not retreat. He protected.

That act places him squarely within a long, largely uncelebrated tradition of protector masculinity, a form of manhood grounded not in force, fear, or authority, but in the willingness to stand between harm and the vulnerable.

What it Means

Alex Pretti’s death has proven to be a rallying cry for all patriots who want to fight for what’s right in our country; it also needs to close the chapter on the false choice between masculinity and progressivism.

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Conservative 501c3 nonprofits focused on youth raised nearly double their progressive counterparts: $800 million vs $410 million. Progressives do have an advantage with youth-focused 501c4 groups. There, progressives have raised 44% more than conservatives over five years ($222 vs $155 million). However, when youth-focused c3 and c4 groups are combined, conservatives had a $323 million advantage over five years.

Until and unless progressive groups are able to raise comparable sums as their conservative counterparts, the competition for shaping the opinions of Americans, particularly of young people, will be an unequal one.

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Progressives Fund in Boom and Bust Election Year Cycles, While Conservatives Fund a More Consistent Always-on Ecosystem

Progressives consistently have a dramatic drop in funding in the year after presidential news cycles.

Progressive nonprofits focused on youth saw their funding fall by ⅔ from 2020 to 2021 ($123 to 47 million), while conservative groups saw an increase by 35% ($105 to 142 million). This wasn’t an aberration: from 2023 to 2024, progressive youth groups saw an increase of 50% ($64 to $96 million), while conservatives increased by 9% ($182 to $199 million). Even more among more explicitly political c4 organizations, conservatives increased funding by 66% from 2020 to 2021, while progressive group funding dropped 86%.

Similarly, progressive news and content creators saw a 50% increase from 2023 to 2024, while conservatives saw a 3% increase.

What this means is that in off-years, when there are not major elections, conservatives are continuing to communicate heavily, while progressives retreat. Among the combined 501c3 groups, conservative leaning ones spent 52% more in 2023 and 107% more than progressives in 2021.

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Despite Progressives’ Funding Disadvantage, There Has Been Pearl-Clutching At Attempts to Balance the Equation

While we don’t yet have the data for 2025, after the 2024 election there was a significant investment in content creators. For-profit entities like Social Currant, Good Influence, Double Tap Democracy, AND Media, Project Bullhorn, and Channel Zero were established, as were nonprofits like Chorus and Project Echo. And yet, they were faced with headlines like, “Professional Democrats are pitching the party’s donors on a wide range of projects aimed at winning back voters,” “Democrats throw money at a problem: countering GOP clout online” and “A dark money group is secretly funding high-profile Democratic influencers.”

While it’s hard to quantify at this point, there seems to be much less of an increase in investment in youth organizing from progressives since the election. But a reminder: this is where conservatives had a $400 million advantage.

How We Came Up With The Numbers

We compared the top five entities (ranked by donation) in each of four categories.

You can see the spreadsheet, including links to the 990 reports here.

Youth-Focused c3s

• Conservative: Turning Point USA, Leadership Institute, Young America’s Foundation, Students for Life of America, Intercollegiate Studies Institute

  • Progressive: Voter Participation Center, Alliance for Youth Organizing, Advocates for Youth, NextGen Climate America, Young Invincibles

  Youth-focused c4s

  • Conservative: Turning Point Action, Young Americans For Liberty Inc, Students For Life Action, American Culture Project, Run Genz

  • Progressive: Center for Voter Information, NextGen Climate Action, Alliance for Youth Action, Voters of Tomorrow, Progressive Leadership Initiative

  New Media c3s (primarily focused on online media creation, and formed after 2005)

  • Conservative: Prager University Foundation, Moving Picture Institute, Project Veritas, Real Clear Foundation, Informing America Foundation

  • Progressive: American Independent, 19th News, Courier (For-profit, but funded by foundations, see tab), The Intercept, More Perfect Union

  Old Media c3s

  • Conservative: Reason Foundation, National Review Institute, Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America, Franklin News Foundation, American Studies Center/ Radio America

  • Progressive: Center for Investigative Reporting (Merged w Mother Jones in 2024), Grist Magazine, Center for Public Integrity, American Prospect, In These Times (Institute for Public Affairs)

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Send the Vote Was Entirely Funded by Trump’s Main Nonprofit

At its launch, John Shahidi, a co-founder of Send the Vote and president of “Full Send,” said, “We have seen a growing movement of young people across this country rallying behind a pro-freedom, pro-America agenda for our country’s future who want to see prosperity and opportunity restored for all.” After the election, UFC president Dana White specifically thanked the Nelk Boys at Trump’s victory party.

According to recently released filings, Send the Vote received $10.4 million in contributions in 2024. While STV did not disclose its donors, it received $10.4 million–all of their funding–from Securing American Greatness, according to that organization’s filings. SAG raised $275 million in 2024, and the New York Times described it as Trump’s “main nonprofit.” Politico described it as “being run by Trump ally Taylor Budowich [...] Budowich also oversees the principal pro-Trump super PAC, MAGA Inc.” All three organizations share the same treasurer and address in Beverly, MA, along with dozens of other Trump-aligned groups, including the Trump inaugural committee and the American Prosperity Alliance.

In other words, the efforts of the Nelk Boys and Send the Vote to reach young men in the 2024 election was entirely a creation of the Trump operation, not an organic or independent movement. This is a clear case of a candidate understanding the importance of upstream culture work and making sure that resources were made available to those who do that work.

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Send the Vote Claimed to Reach 140 Million People with Influencers and 1.1 Million with Ads

After the election, Send the Vote claimed that their ad buying strategy targeted 1.1 million inactive, registered male voters between the ages of 18-34. STV claimed that there were 2 million visitors to their website, and 110,000 people looked up their voting locations. Fox reported, “Send the Vote reached more than 140 million people through influencers, nearly 1 million on streamed content, and nearly 7 million people through podcasts specifically, Fox Digital learned. Send the Vote ads were featured on other wildly popular podcasts, including on comedic shows KillTony, Theo Von, Tim Dillon, as well as the sports-oriented podcast ‘BS with Jake Paul,’ as well as viral TikTok celebrity Hailey Welch’s ‘Talk Tuah’ podcast.”

Send the Vote Was A Cash Cow for Shahidi

According to its filing, Send the Vote paid John Shahidi’s firm Shots Studios just under $2 million for “Placed Media: Podcasts, Licensing,” with another $8 million paid to Direct Persuasion Group. Shahidi, who had started in the music industry, created Shots to pair creators with advertisers. In addition to managing the Nelk Boys, Shahidi also manages Theo Von, whose interview with Trump was viewed as a major moment for Trump’s campaign. And their support for Trump has likely been good for business–Google Trends data shows that the only event in the last three years to drive more search for the Nelk Boys than when Trump invited them on his plane in October 2024 was their interview with Trump ally Benjamin Netanyahu. Shahidi has also tried to expand the Nelk Boys’ empire into consumer goods, which has been successful with its Happy Dad beverages, but less so in crypto, where they are currently being sued for fraud.

Progressives Need to Invest to Compete for Young Men’s Attention

While the data on the effectiveness of the Send the Vote effort is unclear, the lasting narrative it created that there was an organic groundswell of support for Trump by young men seems to have paid off. But it was an organized, institutional effort, one progressives needs to emulate in order to compete.

SAM was founded precisely as a counterweight to the right’s institutionalized effort to reach young men, which is why we recently conducted the largest survey of this cohort’s opinions and emotional drivers. These findings demand a new strategy: one that focuses on the need to engage young men upstream of politics and well before the next election.

This critical constituency is up for grabs in 2026, but getting to them requires a dedicated program to engage them early and often before the next election. Last mile tactics by Democratic candidates alone will not do the trick.

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The movement is explicitly a reaction to the well-established the rise of the hyper on line alt-right pipeline, which many credit with the sharp rightward turn of young men over the last few years. Now, we have a group of young men self-organizing online to actively reject that worldview, talk about the positive values they stand for, and encourage others to join in. This is great news. Yet where is the support?

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There are literally thousands of these videos online, all seemingly in response to @its.strez who jokingly asked for submissions to the alt-left pipeline he was creating. Steeped in male on-line culture, many of these creators are in the gyms, garages, or workshops where they’re going about their business while running commentary on the state of the world around them. Did we mention there are lots of abs and chin ups in the mix?

The videos are all over TikTok and Instagram; if you look for the term on Google or other text-heavy platforms like Twitter or Reddit, you won’t find much – an acute reminder of how fragmented our media ecosystems are. But on the platforms where they dominate, they are spawning subgenres of videos of women thirsting for the alt-left pipeline, including one woman who says, “My ‘for you’ page is taken up with a lot of very attractive men who believe in rights for people.” Another woman writes, “Please God, let the #altleftpipeline take off … we will welcome you over here with open arms AND you’ll become hotter by osmosis. It’s literally science. #altleft #politics #liberal”

You’d think folks in the anti-MAGA world would be jumping for joy. But after a brief burst of interest from press in the organic phenomenon, there has been little institutional followup. These creators are continuing to make content for now, but imagine what they could do with resources and amplification.

Contrast that with how the right operates: back in 2021, Turning Point claimed to have supported 400 creators with a $7.2 million budget. In 2024, Turning Point USA (a 501c3) took in $87 million, and Turning Point Action (a 501c4) took in $33 million, and Praeger University, a 501c3 that creates content aimed at young people, took in $72 million, and there are dozens more organizations on the right making these investments. While their budgets were not devoted entirely to creators, their support is a major component of the organizations’ programs.

The cultivation of culture-first creators has been central to the right’s success with young people.

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Who are the Guys Applying to be “the Alt Left”

Darrick Strzelecki, aka @its.strez (whose bio identifies him as “Leftist | Christian | Sports | Pop Culture | Broncos | Buckeyes”) claimed he was “starting the alt-left pipeline.” As of December, he has 37,000 followers on TikTok and 2 million likes. In his most-watched video, with 104,000 views, he talks explicitly about being a left-leaning sports creator, saying “these streets are rough, bro.” In an interview with Buzzfeed, Strez said, “There’s this stigma about men on the left being less masculine than men on the right, which, if you just look at this trend, is completely false [...] And I do think it’s a good thing as well for women to see that there are men out there who are in favor of pushing and fighting for reproductive rights, reproductive healthcare, and the advancement of women in America.”

@its.strez @its.strez ♬ original sound - Strez

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Tan Man, who identifies as a 24 year old union pipe-fitter in West Virginia, may have the most viewed alt-left pipeline video, with 1 million views.

Lindsey Ian Cole, who says he played semi-professional football and dabbled in professional wrestling, declares in his “formal submission” to the alt-left pipeline, “everyone deserves food, shelter, the chance to educate themselves.”

Martin, @underthearch636, whose submission has 508,000 views, says, “I love lifting heavy… I love having empathy for other people… thinking critically about all situations.”

@underthearch636Welcome to the Alt-Left 💪🤘 #community #growth #criticalthinking

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Danny Collins, a former professional baseball player who spent time in prison, put in a “submission” for the alt-left pipeline. His most viewed video is titled “Leaving MAGA”, with 272,000 views.

“Officially Ethan,” the only creator obviously being supported by an organization (the Unfuck America tour) has 149,000 views on his most viewed video, about the Trump administration purchasing Dominion voting. In a video with some very impressive pullups, Ethan wrote that the “warning signs of alt-left” were being “Educated, compassionate, empathetic, anti-fascist.”

@imofficiallyethan#breakingnews #liberal #news

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If Democrats hope to win in 2026 and 2028, and more importantly hold on to democracy, we need to support these emerging creators. We need voices that reflect every community who are supportive of empathy, freedom and rights for all Americans. But that requires investment, in funding and in building relationships for the long-term.

I covered how RFK Jr.’s literacy of these channels led to his precipitous rise early in his 2024 presidential campaign and how Trump’s uncontested access to this audience was going to affect his own race for a second term. I started to see parallels to what I was studying in the targeted ads that interrupted my son’s YouTube shows and grew familiar with the terminology that populated the chat streams as he played Minecraft. I tried to rattle political cages, warning we had a problem, and got little response.

When Trump won the election last year–largely due to a huge swing of young men–that disinterest flipped to a moral panic. Headlines blared that the youth were not alright. Young men were labelled as red-pilled incels or radical nihilists. My feeds became filled with anxious parents wanting to better understand what their sons were facing. Friends now reach out often at a loss for how to penetrate the foreign worlds increasingly inhabited by their sons and nephews.

So, with Thanksgiving tomorrow and families preparing to gather across the country, I thought I’d offer some insights and points to help you talk turkey with those guys around your holiday table.

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In 2024, I helped to set up the Speaking with American Men (SAM) project. The goal is to help prevent the progressive political class from ceding a generation of young men to the forces constantly preying on them in online spaces. This fall, the SAM project conducted the most comprehensive surveys available on young Americans today and the headline is that these guys are anxious, but not generally the radicals that they are often portrayed to be.

As moms and dads–or just Americans who care about the young men in your lives–it can be easy to feel mystified. This generation is the first true digital natives, and they sometimes seem to live in a different world. This is not so far from the truth: 33% of them say that their online gaming worlds give them their greatest sense of belonging, more than school or religion.

I often see young men being labeled as irredeemable incels for listening to Joe Rogan or dabbling in Andrew Tate’s toxic but entertaining content. I find those stereotypes to be categorically untrue. But these guys are curious, irreverent and trying to make sense of an increasingly hostile world.

This is a generation defined by anxiety about its future. The men and boys feel excluded from much of mainstream culture and politics. SAM’s research found that a substantial share of young men who describe themselves as “getting by” nonetheless fear that any financial stability is fragile. Their margins are thin, and unexpected costs can quickly create a crisis.

It’s no secret that we have failed this generation profoundly, but men feel the cross-pressure of a continued societal imperative to provide for a family they feel they may never have. The vast majority of men under the age of thirty describe rising costs for rent, food, gas, and basic needs as their top concern. Almost a third have been homeless or near homelessness in the last five years. The median age of a first-time home buyer is now 40 years old. The unemployment rate for young people recently hit a 10-year high. It’s no wonder that the majority don’t believe the American dream is achievable.

The ways to connect have dissipated. In 2023, just 27 percent of men between the ages of 25 to 34 socialized on an average day. Labor force participation has fallen, and church membership has fallen dramatically in recent decades. The combination of financial precarity, social isolation, and anxiety about the future makes these guys vulnerable to the hawkers of grievance politics that inhabit their online spaces.

And there’s no doubt they’ve had an effect. Young men famously swung towards Trump in 2024, an occurrence that set off a shock wave of reactions in progressive space. The resulting recriminations were amplified in surround sound by the right-wing online noise machine designed to exacerbate the sense of isolation and exclusion these guys were already feeling.

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Still, these guys are far from lost politically. They supported Democrats in both the New Jersey and Virginia gubernatorial races this year. While men under 35 are about 12% of the electorate, they are 25% of moveable voters. They are the new swing demographic. They prioritize basic rights and freedom, and are generally supportive of abortion rights and marriage equality even as they rank free speech and digital privacy higher on their list of concerns.

They express disappointment in Donald Trump’s failure to deliver, are open to alternatives and above all, like most humans, they want people to listen and pay attention to their concerns.

So, tomorrow, if you find yourself sitting with a young man, express interest in what’s going on in their lives. If they won’t put their phone down at first, keep at it. Make sure that your goal isn’t to score points, but to engage and learn more. Ask them to teach you something. Show interest and compassion for their real lived experience. They may or may not respond the way you want, but they’ll almost certainly appreciate it.

We put together some ice-breakers in case they come in handy. Use the comments to share anything you learn.

Politics

• What issues are you and your friends worried about that you wish more leaders would take seriously?

• Who do you think is really looking out for your interests?

• How did the guys you know react to the assassination of Charlie Kirk?

• What do you think most people get wrong about the politics of young guys?

Finances and the Economy

• Do you think you’ll ever be able to own a home?

• Do you know anyone who couch surfs or lives in their car because they don’t have another home?

• What are your thoughts on how AI will affect your life?

• Do you own crypto? Any tips on how to invest?

• Do you think most of the guys you know feel good about their future? What makes them most excited? Most scared?

Culture and Free Time

• Do you and your friends have a “third space” that’s not home or work where you can hang out in real life? What’s your favorite space to hang out online?

• What’s the dating landscape like for you and your friends? Do you want to have a family someday?

• Do you work out? Who are some of your favorite fitness influencers?

• What gets you excited for the future? Who inspires you?

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Overall there is little targeting by any political advertisers by gender this year on Google’s platforms (this doesn’t account for any outreach the campaigns may be doing beyond Google). This is surprising given the effectiveness of the Trump campaign’s focus on young men in the 2024 election. It’s also surprising given that the candidates at the top of the ticket in both Virginia and New Jersey are women with national security backgrounds, making them unique opportunities to navigate gender outreach in politics.

There continues to be a major gender gap on a generic ballot (women favor Democrats by 8 points, while men favor Republicans by the same), and voters view politics and the parties through the lens of gender. Online spaces are exceedingly gendered, and the days of creating one piece of content that is equally effective across audiences is over.

Failing to target by gender and age is a missed opportunity.

New Jersey

According to a Farleigh Dickinson survey this week that showed Mikie Sherrill leading Jack Ciattarelli 52-45, “people who hold traditional views of gender roles, even within the Democratic Party, are much less likely to support Sherrill. In addition, whether Sherrill is seen as adhering to traditional gender roles – for instance, by being a mother of four – or subverting them – for instance, with her military background – changes how voters perceive her.” A survey from Coefficient showed Sherrill leading 48-47, but losing men 38-54.

Sherrill’s campaign is targeting men and women separately, but using the same creative, as is Ciattarelli’s campaign. One Giant Leap, supporting Sherrill, is for the most part not segmenting its audiences, although it has some ads targeted just at women. It has none targeted at men. Greater Garden State, supported by the Democratic Governors Association, is spending heavily on Google ads but is similarly not targeting men.

Restore New Jersey, the Republican Governors Association, is targeting men 25-34 with a negative ad focused on affordability. The PAC used the same creative to target men and women earlier, but it’s notable that they are spending additional funds to target young men.

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Virginia

In Virginia, Abigail Spanberger has an 8 point advantage in DDHQ’s polling average over her opponent, Winsome Earle-Sears. A Suffolk poll found that among men, Spanberger is down by 1 point (48-49), but she leads with women by 19 points (57-38).

VoteVets is targeting men aged 35 and up with this negative ad against Earle-Sears, the only ad it is running in the closing month of the race. Spanberger’s campaign does not appear to be running any ads targeting men.

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New York City

In New York City, Zohran Mamdani has a 14 point lead in Decision Desk’s polling average. Notably, a Quinnipiac survey found almost equal support among men (45) and women (46) for Mamdani.

New Yorkers for Lower Costs, supporting Mamdani, is one of the only advertisers in 2025 with a clear gender strategy. Its creative targeted at men includes multiple ads with male narrators, as well as one highlighting his endorsement from Bernie Sanders. This is in contrast to NYLC’s ad targeting women, which is a negative ad against Andrew Cuomo, including sexual harassment allegations.

Mamdani’s campaign itself hasn’t advertised on Google since the primary, but appears to have simply targeted all users in New York City.

And Andrew Cuomo’s campaign has done minimal advertising on the platform itself, and without gender targeting. The PAC supporting him, Fix the City, is spending more heavily but has also not targeted by gender, although it is suppressing its ads from users under 35.

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These aren’t just fun facts: they are core components of the modern economy that Gen Z relies on but that don’t have legal protections built over decades that older models do. By failing to engage with these changes in financial practices, policymakers are leaving Gen Z to navigate these unregulated spheres on their own, with potential danger on the horizon.

Gen Z–Those Most in Need of Credit to Buy a Car or Home–Has Seen Its Credit Rating Plummet This Year

FICO recently reported that Gen Z “had an average score decrease of three points, which is the largest year-over-year score decrease of any age group — not only this year, but for any age group since 2020. [...] And 14.1% of Gen Z consumers had a 50-point score decrease in the last year — more than double the figure from 2021.” The drop was driven largely by an increase in student loan delinquencies, which began appearing on credit reports after a long COVID-driven pause in payments that ended in early 2025.

The New York Times reported that when the Credit CARD Act of 2009 implemented protections for young borrowers, the prohibition on individual borrowers under age 21 ironically meant that Gen Z has had less time to build a credit history, which is crucial for borrowing, including home buying.

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The Explosion of Buy Now Pay Later Has Left Gen Z with Debt, But Little of the Protection or Benefit of Traditional Credit, and Young Men Are Heavy Users

Wary of credit cards, young consumers have flocked to Buy Now Pay Later plans, which allow consumers to break up payments for small purchases into smaller, delayed payments. Some of the biggest BNPL companies are Klarna, Affirm and Afterpay. According to the New York Times, half of BNPL users are under 33, and the total value of purchases in 2023 was around $120 billion in the United States, with projections to increase another 50 percent in the next five years. Although women are more likely to use BNPL, men are 38.8 percent more likely to be heavy BNPL users.

But BNPL’s lack of regulation means that its users can be subject to higher interest rates than credit cards are allowed to charge when they don’t pay on time. Before his assassination, Charlie Kirk was deeply critical of BNPL. And when Klarna announced a partnership with DoorDash, Tim Dillon ranted, “People are now paying for DoorDash with installment loans. This is the hell we’re in. This is the hell that the economy’s gotten to.”

@aelishsherwoodBNPL: The Unregulated Crisis Republicans MUST Know We're diving deep into the world of 'Buy Now, Pay Later' (BNPL). Discover the unregulated BNPL system used by 60% of Gen Z. Learn how it affects everything from Amazon to Instacart and explore the potential risks and players like Klarna, Affirm, and Afterpay. We'll discuss why this is a must-know for every Republican. #BNPL #BuyNowPayLater #GenZ #Finance #Klarna #Affirm #Afterpay #ConsumerFinance #Economy #FinancialLiteracy

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The Majority of Gen Z Has a Side Hustle, or “Income Stacks,” And Men are Twice as Likely as Women to Be Gig Workers

Given the confluence of these economic trends, Gen Z’s feeling financially insecure is unsurprising. In an April survey, Pymnts found that the majority of Gen Z (55 percent) had a side hustle in the previous six months, earning an average just under $2000 per month, in arrangements also known as “income stacking,” “polyworking” or being “overemployed.” And side hustles are diverse: in 2023, ride-sharing and deliveries made up only 22% of gig work.

According to USA Today in 2024, 38 percent of men and 17 percent of women describe themselves as flexible or gig workers. Additionally, 60 percent of men and 44 percent of women said they had chosen at some point not to tell friends or family about their participation in the gig economy.

Regardless of the terminology, it’s clear that policy hasn’t kept up. For workers cobbling together multiple gigs and not covered by other employer-sponsored health insurance, the increasing cost of insurance with the decline of ACA subsidies will hit particularly hard. Nor do they have many other benefits and protections commonly expected with full-time employment. And because the Fed isn’t accurately counting these workers, they are largely invisible when it comes to policy decisions.

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