We can confidently say that Gen Z got a lot more Republican over the last couple of years, thanks to a swarm of new, first-time young voters — specifically men of all races.

Pre-election polling captured this phenomenon, voter registration trends tracked it, and post-election exit polls suggest ballots reflected it. Add to this a recent report from the Democratic firm Catalist, which has produced some of the most definitive analyses of the 2024 election, and you start to get a pretty solid sense that young voters have shifted hard toward the Republican Party.

Still, that might elide some nuance within Gen Z.

The data we have from the last election suggests, broadly, at least two types of young voters: “Old Gen Z” — more Democratic, more progressive — and “Young Gen Z” — more Trump-curious and more skeptical of the status quo.

That internal split, roughly between those aged 18 and 24 in the latter camp and 25 to 29 in the former, hasn’t dissipated post-election; it is still showing up in polling and surveys. No cohort is monolithic, but a combination of factors — the pandemic, the rise of smartphones and newer social media, inflation, Trump — seems to be driving a wedge within Gen Z.

The upshot is that there appear to be two Gen Zs. And that divide within the generation certainly complicates the long-held belief that younger voters are generally more progressive than older ones — and that Democrats thus have a natural edge with younger generations.

Politically, there are two Gen Zs

About a year ago, the Harvard Youth Poll, a public opinion project from that university’s Institute of Politics that has been recording young voters’ sentiments for more than a decade, tracked a major difference in the way voters under the age of 30 were........

© Vox