NYT focus group 13 undecided young voters after the election.

[lfromnj]

7 went for Trump and 2 Harris .

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/11/13/opinion/focusgroup-young-undecided-voters.html

Pierce, 26, N.C., white, sales, didn't vote in 2020
I voted for Donald Trump. I decided after Kamala went on “Call Her Daddy.”

McLane, 25, D.C., white, legal field, wrote in Romney in 2020
I shocked myself and voted for Trump. No one tell my family. I was so impressed by JD Vance, the way he carried himself and how normal he appeared. I think I became radicalized on the men and women’s sports issue. The ad that said, “Kamala represents they/them. Trump represents you,” that was so compelling. While Trump is deranged, he represented normalcy somehow to me.

[Averroës]

Not the first anecdote of that kind that I've run into regarding Vance. My read is that the "weird" attack backfired and distracted from more substantive challenges. To a lot of young men, it came across as a feminine-coded type of bullying. Putting those words in Walz's mouth didn't make a lick of difference.

[ProgressiveModerate]

Not the first anecdote of that kind that I've run into regarding Vance. My read is that the "weird" attack backfired and distracted from more substantive challenges. To a lot of young men, it came across as a feminine-coded type of bullying. Putting those words in Walz's mouth didn't make a lick of difference.

I was never big on the weird attack for this reason - a lot of young men right now are struggling - they're underperforming women academically, they're struggling to get relationships, and so on. I think the "weird" attack just re-ignited their own frustrations and making Democrats seem blind to their concerns. I think I posted this somewhere on the forum, but I never liked the weird attacks in part because I myself am an autistic young man and I saw many of the things Vance was getting called "weird" for in myself at times - in the end I let it fly because I disliked Vance that much and think he isn't a very good or genuine guy.

I think part of the reason so many young men are attracted to Trump and Vance is because they both give at least the appearance of success, - there isn't really a coherent vision of masculinity and success being offered by the left right now and these next few years I think that's one of the things the left will need to figure out.

[Unelectable Bystander]

For how much they talked about winning over never Trumpers, the Harris campaign completely fumbled this strategy. Like, I wonder if they did any focus groups at all with legitimate Nikki Haley conservatives.

It felt that the strategy was to ignore economic issues, put social issues into overdrive, and use democracy and immigration as the olive branch to conservatives.

A lot of Haley voters don’t really think Trump can seriously endanger democracy and don’t really care what a singular representative from Wyoming thinks. We care about Trump’s temperament and his disregard for family values.

The angle with this crowd was to just act normal. Instead, Harris refuses to come out against late term abortion, promotes the podcast of a person that doesn’t even believe in monogamy, and endorses hiding your vote from your spouse. It’s almost like it was designed to be creepy and cringey toward any person with a negative view of leftist social ideology. Not surprising that it landed poorly with young men and that the happily married old Republican lady crossover vote was a meme.

[coloradocowboi]

Can somebody maybe summarize the rest of the article. No offense, but I don't think a sample of juts "Pearce" and "McLane" are going to suffice in explaining the attitudes of America's most diverse generation lol

Also how was undecided defined? Tbh I am more interested in non-voters than the tiny segment of Gen Z that was truly up for grabs.

[有爭議嘅領土 of The Figgis Agency]

Other former Biden voters took a pass on Ms. Harris because of the war in Gaza, a lack of policy specifics and skepticism that she could improve the economy and also because they liked Mr. Trump from his appearances on Joe Rogan’s podcast and elsewhere.

As for Mr. Trump, many of our 13 participants said they were hopeful that his second term would be better for America than his first, and believed he would take serious actions to secure the southern border and deport undocumented immigrants who committed crimes. No issue animated the group more than immigration — though at the same time, several Trump voters said that they did not support mass deportations of migrants who were in America working and not posing a threat to anyone.

24M white FL law student was Trump->Harris
24M Black CA chef was Biden->Stein
26M white NC sales was none->Trump
27F white VA digital ads was Trump->Trump
24M white SC teacher was Biden->Trump
25M mixed CA food service was Biden->Trump
19M Latino NY college worker was none->Josh Shapiro
21F SAsian IA student was none->Harris
23F white VA grad assistant was Biden->Trump
21M white GA student was none->Trump
20F white MD legal intern was none->Larry Hogan
22M white NY underwriter was Biden->Mike Bloomberg
25F white DC legal was Mitt Romney->Trump

Moderator, Frank Luntz
What is it about immigration in particular that causes you to become so animated and passionate? I see the difference between this and any other issue.

Pierce, 26, N.C., white, sales, didn't vote in 2020
My grandparents had to come to this country. My grandfather met my grandmother overseas while he was working in the military. And they’ve always had to fight for every opportunity that they’ve had. And it’s just so unfortunate that so many people just walk right across the border and get free housing, free food. I pay $2,000 a month to live here by myself. You know what I mean? It’s not fair that I’m struggling to pay bills when they get free cards and they could do whatever they want. It’s unfair to the people who live here. Let’s take care of our homeless and veterans first.

Laura, 20, Md., white, legal intern, didn't vote in 2020
I’m all for legal immigration. My boyfriend is originally from Brazil. He’s now a U.S. citizen here. He entered here legally a couple years ago to pursue college. And I know I have so many friends here who have a similar path. That’s why it’s an animated discussion.

Jack, 22, N.Y., white, underwriter, voted Biden in 2020
It infuriates me because we haven’t drastically increased the amount of visas available. And there are people in Asia that bust their asses for American companies, work for a pretty low wage, and they want to come here, but the companies literally can’t get a visa. And then I see my tax dollars being used to fund illegal immigrants while we can’t fund schools properly.

Chris, 24, Fla., white, law student, voted Trump in 2020
I take a more humanitarian stance on it. Coyotes, the Mexican drug cartels, horrible, horrible people are heavily involved with getting people across the border. People die regularly on the trip. They traffic women and children. It’s really awful. And I think that I’d like to see more focus on that.

[lakeview]

Not the first anecdote of that kind that I've run into regarding Vance. My read is that the "weird" attack backfired and distracted from more substantive challenges. To a lot of young men, it came across as a feminine-coded type of bullying. Putting those words in Walz's mouth didn't make a lick of difference.

I've been trying to state, as succinctly as you did, the problem with the "weird" gambit, and you've definitely beat me to the punch, because you're right on target here.

The catty invective toward an outsider, based on absolutely nothing, just served as an additional reminder for me that there isn't a home for me among Democrats anymore. Apparently it also served as an impetus for undecided voters to run like hell away from Democrats.

[wbrocks67]

It's ironic to me how Democrats were/are derided for sounding "too much like politicians" and yet JD Vance is literally a caricature of what he thinks a politician is supposed to sound like - and he literally got applauded by the press for sounding "slick"

Just once again where there are completely different standards for Democrats and Republicans

Also, I can't take some of these people seriously... the one person said they were mad she didn't do CNN and Fox News interviews and yet .... she literally did a CNN interview, CNN town hall and a Fox News interview. People are going to believe what they want to believe at the end of the day.

[lakeview]

It's ironic to me how Democrats were/are derided for sounding "too much like politicians" and yet JD Vance is literally a caricature of what he thinks a politician is supposed to sound like - and he literally got applauded by the press for sounding "slick"

Just once again where there are completely different standards for Democrats and Republicans

Huh. Before, the reason that Vance wasn't going to win was he was too weird ("like, ohmigod, can you imagine this guy in the Oval Office?"), and now that he wins, the problem is that he sounds too polished and normal.

Okay.

[wbrocks67]

It's ironic to me how Democrats were/are derided for sounding "too much like politicians" and yet JD Vance is literally a caricature of what he thinks a politician is supposed to sound like - and he literally got applauded by the press for sounding "slick"

Just once again where there are completely different standards for Democrats and Republicans

Huh. Before, the reason that Vance wasn't going to win was he was too weird ("like, ohmigod, can you imagine this guy in the Oval Office?"), and now that he wins, the problem is that he sounds too polished and normal.

Okay.

huh? we all had this entire discussion after the VP debate where the political press fawned over Vance for being a polished and slick politician and many of us brought up that coverage. not sure where you're going with this

[TheReckoning]

Not the first anecdote of that kind that I've run into regarding Vance. My read is that the "weird" attack backfired and distracted from more substantive challenges. To a lot of young men, it came across as a feminine-coded type of bullying. Putting those words in Walz's mouth didn't make a lick of difference.

I was never big on the weird attack for this reason - a lot of young men right now are struggling - they're underperforming women academically, they're struggling to get relationships, and so on. I think the "weird" attack just re-ignited their own frustrations and making Democrats seem blind to their concerns. I think I posted this somewhere on the forum, but I never liked the weird attacks in part because I myself am an autistic young man and I saw many of the things Vance was getting called "weird" for in myself at times - in the end I let it fly because I disliked Vance that much and think he isn't a very good or genuine guy.

I think part of the reason so many young men are attracted to Trump and Vance is because they both give at least the appearance of success, - there isn't really a coherent vision of masculinity and success being offered by the left right now and these next few years I think that's one of the things the left will need to figure out.

Do you think the “weird” attacks may have Trump/Vance seem more “relatable” to autistic men in particular, and made them swing more heavily towards them compared to other groups?

[Pericles]

Donald Trump is many things, but he is absolutely not autistic.

[CheapDollarEra?]

Do you think the “weird” attacks may have Trump/Vance seem more “relatable” to autistic men in particular, and made them swing more heavily towards them compared to other groups?

The average high functioning autistic person wouldn´t do the Trumo thing with the mic.

[ProgressiveModerate]

Not the first anecdote of that kind that I've run into regarding Vance. My read is that the "weird" attack backfired and distracted from more substantive challenges. To a lot of young men, it came across as a feminine-coded type of bullying. Putting those words in Walz's mouth didn't make a lick of difference.

I was never big on the weird attack for this reason - a lot of young men right now are struggling - they're underperforming women academically, they're struggling to get relationships, and so on. I think the "weird" attack just re-ignited their own frustrations and making Democrats seem blind to their concerns. I think I posted this somewhere on the forum, but I never liked the weird attacks in part because I myself am an autistic young man and I saw many of the things Vance was getting called "weird" for in myself at times - in the end I let it fly because I disliked Vance that much and think he isn't a very good or genuine guy.

I think part of the reason so many young men are attracted to Trump and Vance is because they both give at least the appearance of success, - there isn't really a coherent vision of masculinity and success being offered by the left right now and these next few years I think that's one of the things the left will need to figure out.

Do you think the “weird” attacks may have Trump/Vance seem more “relatable” to autistic men in particular, and made them swing more heavily towards them compared to other groups?

I think undiagnosed autistic men could've been a group that was disproportionately impacted. I think undiagnosed autistic men have a lot of frustration in their life about connecting with others and being seen as normal without any "explanation" and will heavily internalize the rejection and become bitter.

Even though I personally struggle with social connection myself, I think knowing I'm autistic helps me be more reasonable because I know the reason this is such a struggle for me, and can hence look at the situations with a more clear-eyed view. I don't think there was a meaningful swing to Trump amongst diagnosed autistic men for this reason, though perhaps certain subsets of autistic men did (i.e. the ones trying really hard to be "bros" and neotropical passing, or the ones who go down the incel route).