MANCHESTER, New Hampshire - In a political reading room lined with photographs and presidential memorabilia at Saint Anselm College, six young men who supported the president in 2024 convened to evaluate the first months of his second term. Their reactions were mixed: some offered cautious approval while others voiced frustration. The conversation underscored a wider trend identified in national polling - a softening of support among young male voters that could matter in the midterm elections.
The students' perspectives, though drawn from a small campus sample, echo findings from broader surveys that find fewer men aged 18-29 approving of the president's performance now than earlier this year. Several of the students highlighted two main fault lines: economic conditions that affect daily life, such as high prices and housing affordability, and immigration enforcement tactics they regard as overly harsh.
Twenty-year-old sophomore Tyler Witzgall summed up a common sentiment. He awarded the president a grade of C or C-plus, praising some achievements but saying the administration had not improved pocketbook issues that matter most to him. "Im still going to graduate and be in an enormous amount of debt. I wont be able to buy a home for a while," he said, describing disappointment with presidential efforts on domestic economic issues.
None of the students interviewed said they regretted voting for the president. They pointed to the 2024 Democratic nominee, then the vice president, as a continuation of a prior administration they associated with lenient immigration policy and rising costs. Yet even those who remained broadly supportive voiced criticism on specific policies and tactics.
"The ICE thing is a huge problem," said Ian Pomfret, a 20-year-old sophomore who still assigned the president a B-plus but criticized recent federal immigration enforcement actions, including the killing of two U.S. citizens by federal agents in Minneapolis. "I feel like there is a better way of going about it than raiding and killing and instant deportation."
Those local remarks align with national polling trends. In a Reuters/Ipsos survey last month, 33% of men aged 18-29 said they approved of the president's performance, down from 43% in February 2025. By comparison, exit polling analyzed by Pew Research indicated that the president had received the support of 46% of young men in the 2024 presidential election, an increase of 7 points from 2020.
Party strategists and campaign operatives are watching those numbers closely. One strategist who works on House races pointed to a CBS News survey from February showing that 43% of young voters consider Republican positions to be "mainstream," and said that Republicans could still prevail in midterm races if they manage to capture at least 40% of the youth vote.
Turnout among younger voters historically falls well short of the overall electorate in midterm years. Only a quarter of eligible young voters cast ballots in 2022, roughly half the overall turnout rate. That gap matters because youth turnout can swing tight contests. Pollster John Della Volpe, who studies Gen Z voters, noted that youth mobilization in 2018 - driven by a national reaction to mass shootings - helped flip more than a dozen House seats to Democrats. He cautioned that recent evidence over the past 15 to 16 months indicates younger men are not a reliable Republican voting bloc, largely because many have not experienced tangible improvements in everyday life since the president returned to office in January 2025.
The coalition of young male supporters the president cultivated in 2024 was built on specific promises and a suite of public-facing actions. Campaign pledges to curb inflation, spur economic growth and tighten immigration enforcement appealed to many young men. A series of high-profile, youth-oriented appearancesattending a sneaker event, sitting down with widely followed podcasters and producing content on short-form social platformsalso helped the president gain traction among younger male audiences.
Recognizing the youth audience's centrality to recent electoral dynamics, the Republican National Committee launched its own account on TikTok last month. The platform reaches six in 10 Americans under 30, according to previous research cited in public discussion, and party operatives see it as a venue to connect with younger voters.
The White House pushed back against criticisms of priority and performance. White House spokesman Davis Ingle said no other president had done more for young men than the current administration, and emphasized ongoing efforts to create jobs, cool inflation, and increase housing affordability.
Campaign veterans who helped target young men last cycle say the party needs to refine its messaging if the president is not on the ballot in November. Media consultant John Brabender, who worked on outreach to younger men in 2024, said Republican campaigns must focus on policies that directly affect people in their 20s - tax cuts and other measures that provide clear, personal benefits - rather than broad performance indicators such as stock market metrics. "I will be the first to say that collectively weve done a poor job of ... communicating directly to the hearts and minds of people at a much younger age," he said.
That critique has been echoed by lawmakers, strategists and White House aides who argue the president should place greater emphasis on economic messaging and less on foreign policy. Polling consistently shows the economy remains the top issue for voters overall, and campaign conversations in battleground states reflect that priority.
New Hampshire is one place where the contest for younger voters is already being waged openly. The race for an open Senate seat there is among four competitive contests this cycle that Democrats must defend. Democratic frontrunner Representative Chris Pappas launched a TikTok account in October and has used the platform to discuss housing costs, a persistent concern for younger residents. "If you ask someone in their 20s about owning a home, that seems like a far-off notion," Pappas said in an interview, adding that the goal is to make homeownership more attainable for more people. His campaign plans a series of events with online influencers designed to boost engagement with younger voters.
On the Republican side, former Senator Scott Brown, who is seeking his party's nomination, says his personal interests and activities help him connect with younger constituents. He mentioned playing guitar in a rock band and coaching high school basketball as examples of relatable experiences. Brown also cited two campaign staffers, ages 17 and 26, who he described as "social media whizzes" assisting in building his online presence. He is scheduled to speak this month at the New Hampshire Institute of Politics at Saint Anselm, a frequent venue for early political debate and engagement.
Students who move through the institute's halls described an environment filled with memorabilia and images of presidents who have visited over decades. Several of the students interviewed expressed a desire for more civil discourse. While they support many policy positions held by the president, they signaled impatience with his combative style and rhetoric that often frames political adversaries as enemies.
All of the Saint Anselm students said they still intended to vote Republican in November. But some, like 19-year-old freshman Tyler Delaney, warned that persistent divisiveness could have political costs. Delaney predicted that if Democrats gain control of the House after the midterms, the need for bipartisan compromise might become clearer and that the presidents polarizing approach could be detrimental in that environment. "It gets to a point where you need to have some bipartisanship, and I think thats gonna hit [the president] hard after the midterms," he said.
The campus conversation illustrates both the fragility and the resilience of the presidents support among younger men: they remain inclined to back Republican candidates, yet their attachment is conditional and sensitive to material issues that affect their immediate economic prospects and perceptions of fairness in enforcement actions. How campaigns translate that nuance into turnout and persuasion efforts will be tested in the months ahead as both parties target Gen Z and younger millennials in competitive districts and states.