As both political parties prepare for the 2026 midterms, the youngest generation of voters may be trickiest of all to reach. Gen Z has proven to be a political conundrum, breaking solidly toward Donald Trump in 2024 (Trump got 46% of Gen Z voters), then strongly toward socialist Zohran Mamdani (78%) in 2025. This follows a poll earlier this year showing Gen Z voters are actually far apart on several key issues.
So what gives with these young voters? Brett Cooper, commentator/influencer and Gen Z member, says her generation is not of one mind. "Older Gen Zs--the folks I went to college with who were in college during COVID, they are still very overwhelmingly left," she tells Fox News. "The younger Gen Zs, who were in high school (during the pandemic) and had their entire high school and entire college experience stripped from them, that grew up amidst all this wokeness and realized how ridiculous it is---they are moving to the right."
Another Gen Z member, Fox News contributor Kaylee McGhee White, believes economic disillusionment has led her generation to support any candidate who is anti-establishment and wants to shake up the system, i.e. Trump and Mamdani. "What drew young adults to Mamdani is the same thing that drew them to Trump," she writes. "His promise to be different, to radically upend a system that Gen Zers believe has failed and disenfranchised them."
Cooper agrees that economics play a large role in capturing the fleeting Gen Z vote. "I look around at my friends and my peers, and they're not sure if they're ever gonna be able to start a family or buy a home...all of that seems very out of reach for most young people," she tells Fox. "So it doesn't really matter who you are, young people hear the word 'free' and they hear 'affordable' and they run with it."
"So I think Republicans need to lean in on that (message), we need tangible change for young people...otherwise we're going to lose them."