Democrats Want Young Men Back. Just Ask Them

By Jack Butler

Sunday, April 06, 2025

 

If you’re not a fan of Tim Walz, the 2024 Democratic vice-presidential candidate believes he could (probably) kick your ass. Walz, the governor of Minnesota, told his fellow Democratic governor Gavin Newsom (of California) as much on the latter’s podcast. Walz was specifically addressing critics of his posturing as masculine, whose comments he (bizarrely) attributes to “misogyny” and the fact that “I scare them.”

 

Walz, recently unchained and apparently unashamed after his ticket’s defeat last year, is not the only Democrat talking about masculinity these days. Since last November, some Democrats have begun pointing to a dramatic drop in appeal among men, especially young men (of all races), as an essential factor in their 2024 defeat. Go figure: The party that has trouble acknowledging the differences between sexes, that accepts caricatures of masculinity and femininity as the real thing, is having serious trouble with men.

 

Trump’s appeared on podcasts such as Joe Rogan’s and allied with celebrities like Hulk Hogan to seek out young men deliberately. It was part of his campaign strategy in 2024. The Kamala Harris campaign tried this too, in its unique way. Walz himself was at the center of the effort. Constantly flannel-clad, Walz in one particular stunt went hunting with a shotgun that he appeared not to know how to load. And don’t forget the manly men for Harris who turned out to be actors and influencers. Ultimately, Harris’s campaign relied more on hectoring male voters, as former President Barack Obama did. It did not work. In 2020, 56 percent of men under 30 voted for Joe Biden. Fifty-six percent of the same group voted for Donald Trump in 2024.

 

Now, some Democrats are trying again. Walz, who was a high school football coach before he betrayed Minnesota students, is one of several Democrats leaning into sports commentary as a way to reach young men. “It shows you’re a real human being,” Walz said of this effort — something that may be necessary in his case.

 

Other Democrats are attempting a pro-masculine messaging about as subtle as the “How do you do, fellow kids?” meme. Speaking of “the well-being of our young men and boys,” Maryland Governor Wes Moore said, “I want Maryland to be the one that is aggressive and unapologetic about being able to address it and being able to fix it.” Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer directed a recent speech “to all young people, but especially to our young men.” Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont announced “a DEI initiative, which folks on both sides of the aisle may appreciate,” to encourage men to become teachers.

 

It’s good that some Democrats are beginning to realize the errors of their ways. Young men are falling behind women in many social indicators. But the intersectionality framework that has taken over the party makes it difficult for most of its leaders to imagine that such a supposedly privileged demographic needs attention — except, perhaps, as villains. Moreover, Democrats as well as the institutions favorable to or outright allied with them have taken on a humorless and oppressive character that regards even healthy, authentic masculinity with suspicion, if not pure antagonism. It would be beneficial if this changed.

 

But trying to fit young men into the intersectionality framework as simply another aggrieved demographic won’t work. Nor should it. There are higher callings of manhood that will never fit into such an understanding of the world. Even referring to such a complex and multifaceted group by the simple label of “young men,” as so many post-election analyses (including this one!) have done, can be reductive and shortchanging. So long as Democrats’ appeals to men remain superficial, caricatured, and constrained by leftist priors, don’t expect them to work.

 

Republicans should not assume they have no work left to do, however. Politics is always changing; even Democrats could someday figure out what they’re doing wrong. Conservatives must continue defending a healthy masculinity. That includes rejecting attempts from the left to demonize and belittle men, but it also means rebuking the attempts of figures such as Andrew Tate and Costin Alamariu (a.k.a. Bronze Age Pervert) to advance a seemingly male-coded worldview that, in fact, undermines true manhood, the family, healthy sexuality, and so much more. Tim Walz, an ass-kicker in his own mind, may not really understand what it means to be a man. The Tate idolizers and the Bronze Age–minded bros don’t, either.