How Trump’s victory was partly fueled by young men’s financial woes

As Election Day approached, Americans were sharply divided. But the gender gap is among the most glaring divisions, with more women supporting Vice President Kamala Harris and a majority of men supporting President-elect Donald Trump.

Women favored Harris by an 8-point margin, with the vice president garnering 53% support, compared to Trump’s 45%. Men supported Trump by a 13-point margin, with 55% favor Trump and 42% support Harris — resulting in a 21-point gender divide, according to NBC News exit polls.

Trump won overwhelming support among men on economic issues in particular, including among Hispanic and black voters, who were feeling particularly pessimistic, according to NBC News exit polls. Inflation was voters’ top concern, followed by the current state of the economy, according to NBC polls.

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Experts say one factor that drove young men to the polls may have been perceived economic disparities, which ultimately helped Trump win.

“Men feel like there is no path to economic mobility for them,” said Julia Pollak, chief economist at ZipRecruiter.

A growing disillusionment sets in.

Men are steadily dropping out of the workforce, particularly those aged 25 to 54, which are considered their prime working years.

A Pew Research Center study found that men who are not college educated leave the workforce at higher rates than men who are. At the same time, fewer young men have enrolled in college over the past decade.

In 1995, young men and women were equally likely to have a bachelor’s degree, at 25%. Today, 47% of women aged 25 to 34 in the United States have a bachelor’s degree, compared to 37% of men their age, according to Pew.

“It’s a huge, huge gap,” Pollak said.

Schools often present a four-year degree as the ideal scenario. And in many fields, vocational programs and other alternative pathways “are not as prevalent” as they once were, Pollak said.

At the same time, some traditional blue-collar jobs, which previously employed more non-college-educated men, have declined due to automation and globalization, leading to job losses and uncertainty about job prospects. future employment, according to experts.

Overall, you have a group that feels like they’re being “left behind,” Pollak said.

Brett House, professor of economics at Columbia Business School, agrees: “The big concern is that we are developing a pool of young men who are not developing the additional skills [nor] “Education is necessary for full participation in the workforce,” he said, especially in “old industrial manufacturing states.”

These days, young men are more likely to be considered NEETs – not in employment, education or training – a cohort that has been hit hardest by globalization and the decline of manufacturing in this country, according to Richard Fry, senior researcher at Pew. .

“When you’re not rewarded for your work, you work less,” Fry recently told CNBC. “It’s a fundamental principle of labor economics.”

Men were more likely than women to say they thought the election results would impact their financial lives in the short term, according to a separate survey from the National Endowment for Financial Education. These voters largely favored Trump.

Those without a high school diploma and those with a two-year degree are also the most likely to say their financial lives will be affected by the presidential election. NEFE surveyed 1,000 adults in October about their financial feelings about the 2024 general election.

“It is reasonable that many Americans assessed their current financial well-being and future prospects when they voted in November,” said Billy Hensley, president and CEO of NEFE. Hensley is also a member of the CNBC Global Financial Wellness Advisory Council.

During this time, women have “made enormous progress” in their education and careers. and work as much, if not more, than their male counterparts, according to Ali Bustamante, economist and director of the Roosevelt Institute.

Today, women are marrying and having children later, if at all, and prioritizing their careers, Pollak said. They expect the government to make that choice less difficult through universal child care and access to abortion, she said.

“There was a time when people were either mothers and wives or working single people,” Pollak said. “Now women often prioritize the career person over their wife and mother.”

However, while the issue of reproductive rights has become a major factor in the 2024 presidential race, it has not pushed more women to vote. Nor did it turn out to be one of the most important issues facing the country among voters, according to exit polls.

“Trump’s message resonated with young men,” said Fatima Goss Graves, president of the National Women’s Law Center Action Fund. “The pain that people in this country are feeling in terms of the economy is real.”

Yet other issues — like paid leave, affordable housing, child care and equal pay — are also extremely important to families, she said.

“It was an election, but I think it would be a mistake to suggest that women will stop fighting in greater numbers, either for reproductive freedom or for the things they care about,” he said. Graves said. “We have work to do.”

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