Young male voters in Wisconsin talk about Trump’s push to win them over

By Nathan Bieneman >>

The Trump campaign has aggressively pursued a strategy of podcast appearances in the last weeks leading up to the Nov. 5 election in an effort to appeal to young men ages 18 to 24, a voting bloc that consistently has the lowest rate of voter turnout.

According to the Center for American Women and Politics, young men aged 18 to 24 are even less likely to vote than women in the same age range. The turnout rate of young men was 49% in the 2020 election and 40% in 2016. In comparison, young women had a 53.9% turnout in 2020 and a 46% turnout in 2016.

Wisconsin, one of seven swing states, played a part in deciding the election in former President Donald Trump’s favor in 2016. In a close 2024 election that could be decided by a handful of votes, young male voters have become an important target of the Trump campaign.

Trump’s media appearances in the last several months have included a series of podcast interviews with the Nelk Boys,, a popular group of Canadian pranksters, and Theo Von, a mostly apolitical comedian. Trump also appeared on a livestream with Aidin Ross. At the end of the livestream, Ross gifted Trump a custom-wrapped Tesla Cybertruck adorned with the now famous image of Trump bleeding and holding his fist in the air after surviving an assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania.

Trump has also made use of sporting events to promote his campaign, like when he walked out to thunderous applause at an Ultimate Fighting Champion event in New Jersey days after his criminal conviction in New York City. He also attended a Alabama-Georgia college football game last month.

“Young men enjoy fighting, they enjoy the Nelk Boys, anything like that,” said Cameron Schmidtknecht, a 18-year-old student at the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee and an undecided voter. “Him going to the Georgia-Bama game, it’s just cool to see someone that could be your president do something that you also enjoy.”

Josh Pandl, a 20-year-old UWM student who is leaning towards voting for Trump, also said he thinks these appearances are helping the campaign.

“It makes him more of a people’s person because he’s going out and doing normal people things and talking to people,” Pandl said.

Jonathan Jacobs, a 19-year-old UWM student who does not have any plans to vote, said while these appeals may work for some voters, the majority is not likely to take the strategy seriously,

“This is not really like a political thing,” Jacobs said. “You’re treating this stuff like a halftime show. That’s not what politics is. I just feel like it’s a bunch of phony stuff.”

Nate Hall, a 21-year-old UWM student who plans to vote for Trump, also said Trump’s’ strategy is a double-edged sword.

“It encourages young voters, but it also encourages the other side as well to vote against him,” Hall said.

Hall pointed out that while a segment of Trump’s audience will be entertained by the podcast appearances, just as many people will be lost as they will be gained.

“He brings in but he also brings against,” Hall said. “I don’t think it’s going to be much of a benefit for him.”

Hall said one of his major reasons for supporting Trump is foreign policy.

“I’m more of an isolationist,” Hall said. “So I like his foreign policy. That’s my main thing. I don’t think he’s the greatest on some of the other things at times, but I don’t know, I don’t like the wars. I’m a big anti-war guy.”

Pandl also said he likes Trump’s policies.

“I think that in general Trump is going to be better for the economy,” Pandl said. “I think that he’s just a stronger leader that I think has better foreign policies and stuff like that.”

Kathleen Dolan, a political science professor at the UWM, has conducted research on the degree to which gender impacts the results of political campaigns. Dolan said that tracking the impact of candidate appearances on new media platforms is difficult.

“We haven’t caught up yet with them in terms of our research to know who’s consuming what, and most importantly, whether it’s having an impact,” Dolan said.

Dolan said Trump’s strategies seem useful in terms of publicity but she doubts whether they will change people’s minds.

“I think it is a strategy that is at least worth pursuing because the key in this election, and in presidential elections, the last three or four of them, it’s not about persuading voters as much as it is making sure that they vote,” Dolan said.

“What he is trying to do is not convince them to vote for him. He is trying to make sure they get out and vote.”

Jonah Byron, a 19-year-old UWM student, will be voting on Nov. 5, for Kamala Harris. Byron said he understands the strategies behind Trump’s campaign for young male voters like himself, even if he doesn’t approve of those strategies.

“To young guys I think it does appeal,” Byron said. “That’s what his demographic of supporters like.”

Nathan Bieneman is a photography major at Columbia College Chicago. He is from Lake Forest, Illinois.

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