COVID-19 Politics and Youth Behavior

This week, Matt and Brian take stock of Donald Trump’s late pitch to young male voters, who are significantly more Republican curious than young men were in the Bush and Obama years:

* Are young men really drifting in a more conservative direction? Or are they mostly attracted to Trump’s teflon libertinism?

* Is America swinging back to a pre-Bush norm when partisanship wasn’t so stratified by age?

* Will these voters turn out? Are they even registered?

Then, behind the paywall, Matt and Brian debate the theoretical merits of pandering to young voters with policy appeals. Are Trump’s weird promises around vaping and cryptocurrency really the kind of thing that can mobilize voters without partisan commitments or apolitical young people? Does the fact that he fully reversed himself, in exchange for money, to adopt these new positions undermine the appeal at all? And to what extent is the Harris campaign also microtargeting young voters?

All that, plus the full Politix archive are available to paid subscribers—just upgrade your subscription and pipe full episodes directly to your favorite podcast app via your own private feed.

Further reading:

* Brian on the deficiencies of Trump’s pandering, young-male voter Hail Mary.

* Matt on whether the influx of women into the workforce (and, in parallel, the Democratic Party) help explain new norms around sensitivity (or young men’s new openness to MAGA).

* Jessica Valenti on how Kamala Harris doesn’t just defend abortion but has started to normalize it.

* The Harvard Institute of Politics fall youth poll.