LEILA FADEL, HOST:
Democrats are rethinking their approach to winning the votes of young men. Most male voters under the age of 30 supported Donald Trump for president. That was a rightward shift from previous years. A new survey of more than 1,000 young men has some insights. Aaron Smith is with the Young Men's Research Initiative, which commissioned the survey. He spoke with our colleague, Michel Martin, about the findings and the concerns of young male voters.
AARON SMITH: Their concerns are not that dissimilar to many Americans. No. 1 is inflation. No. 2 is cost of housing. They're worried about their future. Forty-seven percent of them say the economy is getting worse. That's about the same as it was during the last election. So they still feel this intense dissatisfaction with the status quo, this sense of not having a clear path to the middle class.
MICHEL MARTIN, BYLINE: How did these young men talk about what they saw as their larger role in society?
SMITH: It's a fascinating question about what does it mean to be a man in today's society. In many ways, their values are not that dissimilar to our fathers or grandfathers in the sense of they value protecting their family. They want to be able to provide for their family. They value honesty. That said, we have an online media environment that caters to some of their worst impulses, you know, this idea if you're listening to an Andrew Tate and you feel like you're invisible as a young man, well, here's someone who might have answers for you. That is pervasive online.
MARTIN: That was the other - one of the other fascinating things that you ask about, how young men are spending their time. And it would seem - I'm not trying to be judgmental here, but it just seems like a lot of the ways they're spending their time is very much at odds with what they say are their goals.
SMITH: It's a group that spends a ton of time online. At the same time, they will say people spend too much time on their phone and they spend too much time online. There's a conflict there.
MARTIN: So let's get into a little bit more of the politics of this. Are young men interested in politics?
SMITH: Young men have low trust across institutions, but particularly in politics. They say that both political parties are corrupt. So elected officials have a lot of work to do to regain that trust. But I think that we need to take young men at their word when they say their top issues are the cost of living, cost of housing and address those. I think we make a mistake when we try to write a story about a whole generation based on how they vote every two years or every four years. It can be inauthentic, and it can come across as pandering, I think, to try to say, oh, we have to get the messaging just right for this group. When what they're asking for is they're saying, I'm dissatisfied with the status quo. I have these real concerns, particularly on the economy, and what are we going to do to address those?
MARTIN: Why is housing so important to young men? Can you just - I mean, I have a theory about this, it's because it speaks to your ability to form a household. You can't fulfill your traditional role in the family by saying, I'm going to provide a house or home for my family. What's it about?
SMITH: I think it comes back to that idea of protect and provide. You know, I protect myself and I protect my family and my community, and part of that is by having a home. And we've taken that opportunity away from so many young people.
MARTIN: So if you're a Democrat, what should you take from this? And if you're a Republican, what should you take from this?
SMITH: I think Democrats and Republicans should draw the same message, such as they cannot take young men voters for granted at all. They are...
MARTIN: Do you think they do?
SMITH: ...Not attached - yeah, I think they've taken this group for granted for a long time. And I think it's only been a recent phenomenon that we have on all these conversations about young men voters. And so this idea that this group has been invisible, I think, rings true for a lot of young men. And so elected officials have a lot of work to do to regain that trust and put forth policies that are actually going to make a difference in this group's life.
MARTIN: That's Aaron Smith. He's the founder of the Young Men's Research Initiative, which recently conducted a survey of more than a thousand young men in the United States in partnership with YouGov. Aaron Smith, thanks so much for joining us once again.
SMITH: Thank you very much. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
