The Democratic Party isn’t Confused About How to Reach Young Men or Young People in General

It's Afraid of Change.

by Matthew Royer, former president of the Virginia Young Democrats and Garrett Readling, former communications director of the Young Democrats of North Carolina

We’ve all seen the headlines: Democrats are investing millions into figuring out how to reach young people, specifically young men. This includes multi-million dollar research studies, trying to invent our own Joe Rogan, and elevating “youth political influencers.”

We’ll save you the time and money: you’ll learn more about young people at the bar — or from any young volunteer who’s knocked on doors — than you will from any political influencer or a $20 million blank check to a consulting firm for “market research” on young men.

Having spent years running youth outreach in the South, we’ve seen firsthand how inroads are made and coalitions are built by meeting people where they are — whether that’s at their doorstep, hosting events that promote youth engagement in their communities, or spending time in the places they already go. It’s done by showing up, talking about real issues, and most importantly: showing people how good government and good politics can work for all of us.

It’s relationship-building. You can’t (and shouldn’t) fake it, and you can’t just throw money at it. You can’t parachute people in. It’s about consistently being present and building trust with communities while talking about issues that matter, both in person and online.

A study by NIH showed that canvassing and person-to-person conversations increased voter turnout by almost 10% when there was an actual conversation, whereas a NextGen study showed only a 2% increase when young people were shown influencer content.

We’ve seen this approach pay off in North Carolina. At 25 years old, Anderson Clayton became the youngest state party chair in the nation thanks to a coalition of young people working on the ground. She earned that seat by traveling the state, speaking directly with party members, and recruiting more young Democrats into the party structure. Not only did she win through genuine youth organizing, but she’s made it her mission to uplift young people and show up in communities long neglected by our party.

While no party’s success depends on one person, because of Anderson’s work and others like her, North Carolina was the only state in the country last year where Democrats flipped multiple statewide offices and broke a Republican supermajority in the state house.

These victories happened because of young people doing the work — campaign managers, organizers, and often the candidates themselves.

Anderson may have a major platform now, but she didn’t get there by going viral. She got there by prioritizing reaching people and changing minds over defending the Party.

That’s why it’s so frustrating to see national Democrats pouring money into influencer campaigns that ring hollow. It’s become routine: a young person goes viral once, and Democratic organizations fall over themselves to elevate them as a spokesperson. But our party has to learn: going viral doesn’t make someone an effective messenger or strategist.

It does, however, make party leaders feel better. And that’s the real problem: Democratic Party insiders seem more interested in finding young people who will serve as yes-men — excusing the Party’s shortcomings — than in reaching voters or uplifting tomorrow’s leaders.

Instead of elevating young people with lived experience and a vision for our future, party leaders prioritize influencers who entertain and say what those leaders want to hear. We saw this trend at last year’s Democratic National Convention, where social media influencers and former Trump staffers were given more time to speak than actual young elected officials and organizers. It was political theater — a way to shield leadership from valid criticism by saying, “At least this group of young people supports the octogenarians holding onto power, so the rest must be okay with it too.”

It comes off as manufactured. It comes off as astroturfing, which is what makes this whole notion of “creating a liberal Joe Rogan” so asinine. It makes a mockery of the young people doing the hard, often thankless work that keeps our party alive.

The people we need to hear from aren’t getting flown to conferences or paid thousands to defend the party line. They’re building power in their communities after work, knocking doors in the rain, and showing up for their neighbors. They’re talking to real people and having honest conversations. They’re the ones reaching people.

It may not trend on social media, but it puts Democrats in people’s hearts and minds. It shows voters that someone — at every level of the Party — sees them and wants to help.

That’s not to say that all uses of media personalities and influencers by political campaigns are bad. There are smart ways to go about it. For instance, most podcast, radio, YouTube, and Twitch viewers don’t tune in for political discussions. They consume that content for entertainment or interests that have nothing to do with politics. However, when political candidates appear on these shows, they reach huge audiences who trust those hosts, making the conversations much more impactful.

One of the best moments from Kamala Harris’s campaign was when she went on Call Her Daddy. Alex Cooper’s show has almost 10 million listeners per episode, 93% under 45 years old, and 70% women. That appearance injected youth into the campaign and potentially increased turnout among young women because Harris spoke about real issues with someone they trusted. While Democrats ended up struggling more with young male voters, there are still clear strategies to reach them.

For instance, Zohran Mamdani showed how this works with younger men. He posted Instagram videos with comedian Stavros Halkias, who has a massive following across platforms. Mamdani did an interview on YouTube with Hasan Piker, who has 1.66 million subscribers there and 2.7 million followers on Twitch. He also reached a predominantly Black audience on The Breakfast Club, which has over 4.5 million listeners each week. That’s just the tip of the iceberg. Through all of this, he engaged audiences via people they already trusted.

These audiences aren’t something you can manufacture out of thin air. They’re built over years of content creation, public relations, and promotion. YouTube has 122 million daily users and 2.53 billion monthly users, but most aren’t there for political content. They’re there for TV clips, viral videos, podcasts, sports replays, gaming streams, or DIY tutorials.

So creating a Democratic YouTube channel won’t automatically beat entertainment channels with right-leaning views. Sharing political content can still reach people if it’s relevant to their interests, but it’s not the sole solution.

This is where Democrats largely lost in 2024. Instead of engaging in spaces with massive existing bases, we tried to build our own at lightning speed — paying content creators tens of thousands of dollars for a single Kamala Harris video with only three months left in the campaign. Meanwhile, Donald Trump went on shows like Joe Rogan, This Past Weekend with Theo Von, Impaulsive with Logan Paul, Bussin’ with the Boys from Barstool Sports, the All-In Podcast, and more. His team knew appearing on these shows reached huge, impressionable audiences and generated persuasive content without costly ad buys.

Love him or hate him, Joe Rogan is at the top of the influential media game, with 14.5 million Spotify followers, 16.4 million YouTube subscribers, 18.9 million Instagram followers, and 15 million X (Twitter) followers. When Bernie Sanders went on Rogan’s show to talk populist, working-class issues, he reached more people than any campaign video could. That doesn’t mean we agree with Rogan’s views, but sometimes we have to get out of our comfort zone to meet people where they are.

And it’s not like we lack left-leaning media personalities. Hasan Piker streams to almost 2 million people daily. Alex Cooper’s feminist-focused Call Her Daddy reaches millions weekly. Comedians like Nick Mullen, Stavros Halkias, and Adam Friedland — associated with the “dirtbag left” — supported Bernie Sanders in 2020 and now host their own major podcasts. Kylie Kelce’s Not Gonna Lie podcast debuted with 25 million listeners, unseating Rogan, and she’s described her politics as “aggressively leaning to the left.”

The audiences we need are already out there. We just have to be willing to reach them — and not think we’re above it all.

Rebuilding a strong, diverse, working-class Democratic coalition is hard work, and often uncomfortable work. But reaching young people — especially young men — doesn’t have to be.

We need to uplift what’s working: having real conversations about issues impacting young people’s daily lives, in places they already are, with messengers they trust. We need fewer expensive influencer videos parroting party lines, and more honest engagement.

Let’s be the party that shows up to where people are — and knows people.

And please, enough with the so-called “youth political influencers.”

By the Ballot is an opinion series published on Substack. All views expressed are solely those of the author and should not be interpreted as reporting or objective journalism or attributed to any other individual or organization. I am not a journalist or reporter, nor do I claim to be one. This publication represents personal commentary, analysis, and opinion only.