Democrat strategists are struggling to come to terms with President Donald Trump’s decisive rightward shift of the electorate in last year’s election that saw him win the popular vote and all seven swing states in a historic victory.
The New York Times published the first installment of a deep dive into the Democrats’ efforts to figure out and correct what went wrong in an election the report described as “a defeat that felt like both a political and cultural rejection.”
Among the Democrats’ problems is how to reach young men lost to President Trump. Reporter Shane Goldmacher reported on a proposed $20 million study that would “study the syntax, language” attractive to young men, like an anthropological study.
Excerpt from the Times report:
For now, Democratic donors and strategists have been gathering at luxury hotels to discuss how to win back working-class voters, commissioning new projects that can read like anthropological studies of people from faraway places.
The prospectus for one new $20 million effort, obtained by The Times, aims to reverse the erosion of Democratic support among young men, especially online. It is code-named SAM — short for “Speaking with American Men: A Strategic Plan” — and promises investment to “study the syntax, language and content that gains attention and virality in these spaces.” It recommends buying advertisements in video games, among other things.
“Above all, we must shift from a moralizing tone,” it urges.
In reaction to a gobsmacked CNN reporter, Andy Kaczynski, Donald Trump, Jr posted the classic Steve Buscemi/30 Rock meme, “How do you do, fellow kids?”
Democrats after spending $20 million trying to figure out how to talk to guys. https://t.co/VZuGO2noBq pic.twitter.com/zkIXR0BVm2
— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) May 25, 2025
In a separate article, Goldmacher reported on Trump moving the electorate to the right (excerpt):
All told, Mr. Trump has increased the Republican Party’s share of the presidential vote in each election he’s been on the ballot in close to half the counties in America — 1,433 in all — according to an analysis by The New York Times.
It is a staggering political achievement, especially considering that Mr. Trump was defeated in the second of those three races, in 2020.
By contrast, Democrats have steadily expanded their vote share in those three elections in only 57 of the nation’s 3,100-plus counties.
These counties, which we are calling “triple-trending,” offer a unique and invaluable window into how America has realigned — and still is realigning — in the Trump era. They vividly show, in red and blue, the stark changes in the political coalitions of the two parties.
The scale of Mr. Trump’s expanding support is striking. While roughly 8.1 million Americans of voting age live in triple-trending Democratic counties, about 42.7 million live in Republican ones.
Even more ominous for the Democrats are the demographic and economic characteristics of these counties: The party’s sparse areas of growth are concentrated almost exclusively in America’s wealthiest and most educated pockets.
Goldmacher posted illustrations of the Trump shift:
All told, Trump has improved every election in 1,433 of the nation’s 3,100+ counties — even as he lost in 2020.
Democrats have expanded their vote share continuously in only 57 counties.
But the demographics are even more revealing…
Gift link:https://t.co/KINfJds7X5
— Shane Goldmacher (@ShaneGoldmacher) May 25, 2025
Earlier last week, Times reporter Teddy Schleifer reported on Democrats spending big money to “find the next Joe Rogan” (excerpt):
Six months after the Democratic Party’s crushing 2024 defeat, the party’s megadonors are being inundated with overtures to spend tens of millions of dollars to develop an army of left-leaning online influencers.
At donor retreats and in pitch documents seen by The New York Times, liberal strategists are pushing the party’s rich backers to reopen their wallets for a cavalcade of projects to help Democrats, as the cliché now goes, “find the next Joe Rogan.” The proposals, the scope of which has not been previously reported, are meant to energize glum donors and persuade them that they can compete culturally with President Trump — if only they can throw enough money at the problem.
Fox News host and former Trump White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany mocked the Democrats’ efforts, noting that Rogan and other influential podcasters now supporting Trump had been driven from the Democratic Party in recent years:
Democrats are reportedly planning to spend tens of millions of dollars trying to “find the next Joe Rogan.”
They have a spreadsheet with 26 different proposals!
Here is what they miss – what my friend @alexbruesewitz told me: “All of the podcasters that Trump sat with were… pic.twitter.com/DiZT5ncQO2
— Kayleigh McEnany (@kayleighmcenany) May 22, 2025
Bonus flashback: The Kamala Harris campaign scored an own goal safety trying to appeal to men pairing Harris’ vice presidential nominee Minnesota Governor Tim Walz (D) with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) to talk politics over a game of Madden NFL a week before the election–on a Sunday afternoon when real NFL games were being played:
Gov. Walz and @AOC are playing Madden and talking about Trump’s Project 2025https://t.co/YgblzmPLbO pic.twitter.com/26NcMzlukl
— Kamala HQ (@KamalaHQ) October 27, 2024
