What do President Donald Trump and newly elected New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani have in common? Not much, except this: young adults love it.
In fact, both men owe their electoral victories in part to Gen Z, my generation. According to one analysis, 78 percent of voters aged 18 to 29 voted for Mamdani on November 4, including 67% of young men and 84% of young women.
Just a year earlier, many in the same demographic went to the polls to cast their votes for Trump. The president won 46% of Gen Zers last year, including 56% of young men and 40% of young women, significantly improving his standing among this group compared to 2020 and 2016.
If this wild swing from right to left gave you whiplash, I don’t blame you. But there is a method to this madness.
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Both President Donald Trump and newly elected New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani have unique appeal to young voters. (Demetrius Freeman/The Washington Post via Getty Images; Selcuk Acar/Anadolu via Getty Images)
What drew young adults to Mamdani is the same thing that drew them to Trump: his promise to be different, to radically upend a system that Gen Zers believe has failed them and disenfranchised them.
For example, it is no coincidence that Trump’s approval among young adults was highest in February and March of this year, when he began aggressively rolling out his agenda. Of course, some of that can be attributed to the honeymoon effect that every president enjoys at the start of his term. But the policy itself earned Gen Z’s favor.
Take the Department of Government Efficiency, for example: Nearly three in four college-age Americans said they supported Trump’s efforts to reduce waste, fraud and abuse in the federal government. Older voters may have found DOGE’s cuts shocking, but for young adults it felt like the first time something was actually done.
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Mamdani’s proposals are clearly radically different from Trump’s. Rather than undermining the government to make it more responsive, Mamdani wants to increase its size and reach in almost every respect. During his victory speech on Tuesday, Mamdani insisted he will prove there is no problem “too small” for his government to solve.
That’s a terrifying thought for those familiar with political realities and history. But to young adults my age, who are too often unaware of either, Mamdani’s promise sounds like a sincere attempt to make New York City’s government work for them instead of against them—with some free stuff thrown in for good measure.
This point is crucial. Young adults feel like they have no place in our government and economy, and they are desperate for a way in. Older Americans may dismiss the concerns of Generation Z as a rite of passage, but the fact is that the American dream they watched their parents and grandparents achieve now feels completely out of reach.
Unlike older generations, for example, many young adults are saddled with crippling student debt as they chase a degree that no longer delivers the smooth white-collar careers they were promised. And on November 4, a new report found that the average age of a first-time homebuyer in the US is now 40 years old – an all-time high.
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This is why Gen Zers were the most optimistic about Trump’s plan to drive down the cost of housing, but also why they are wooed by Mamdani’s foolish promise to freeze rents in the Big Apple. Everything – everything – is better than the current trajectory.
Zohran Mamdani, candidate for mayor of New York City, and now mayor-elect, holds hands with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-NY, at the end of a campaign rally at Forest Hills Stadium in the Queens borough of New York City on October 26, 2025. (ANGELA WEISS/AFP via Getty Images)
It also helps that both Mamdani and Trump have made a deliberate effort to connect with young adults where they are: social media. Call it TikTok populism, but Gen Zers are simply much more likely to be convinced by the candidate who understands how to communicate with them. Trump did this by storming the independent podcast scene, and Mamdani did it with compelling visuals and influencer endorsements.
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Ultimately, my generation is motivated less by policy details and more by a broad agenda that promises to dismantle the status quo. Maybe that makes Generation Z young and stupid, but you’ll be hard-pressed to find a young voter who cares. We are not interested in preserving an establishment in which we have no stake, nor are we willing to settle for the controlled decline that keeps older generations comfortable but sacrifices our chance for a prosperous future.
If Republicans want to continue building on the progress Trump has made with Gen Z, they must recognize this and make good on Trump’s promise to improve the way Washington works. What Gen Z wants is change – and fast.
