‘A big cratering’: an expert on gen Z’s surprise votes – and young women’s growing support for Trump

The gender gap among young people was predictably vast. But the numbers still defied expectations, as the political scientist Melissa Deckman explains

• A masculinity researcher on the Democrats' fatal miscalculation'

Long before voting closed in the 2024 elections, pundits predicted that young Americans would be riven by a canyon-wide gender gap. Those predictions turned out to be correct.

As a whole, Kamala Harris won voters between the ages of 18 and 29 by six points. But preliminary exit polling indicates that Donald Trump opened up a 16-point gender gap between young men and young women: 56% of men between the ages of 18 and 29 voted for Trump while just 40% of their female peers did so.