Young Men Go Blue

CNN exit polls show young men backing Democrats in New Jersey, Virginia, and New York

The Democratic Party has good reason to pop the champagne after Tuesday night’s election results. Young men voting blue may be worth a toast.

Some important caveats up front: these were off-year elections, which tend to favor Democrats (especially high-propensity voters, a group that skews away from young men). The contests were held in blue states, with a deeply unpopular Republican president, and the data shown below comes from exit polls—an instrument that’s as much art as science. Still, party leaders can exhale—if only slightly—that in key races, young men backed Democrats more than any other male age group.

CNN exit polls show men aged 18-29 opting for the Democratic ticket in Virginia, New Jersey, and New York alike. The graphs below visualize exit poll data last recorded around 12 a.m. EST on election night.

Virginia

In Virginia, CNN exit poll data find 57 percent of men ages 18-29 voting for Democratic gubernatorial candidate Abigail Spanberger. This group backed Spanberger by a +15 margin, totaling the highest support across any male age group. This support declined steadily with age, falling to 52 percent among men 30-44 and bottoming out at 42 percent among men 65 and older.

Gen Z women overwhelmingly backed Spanberger at 81 percent, a 24-point difference compared to young men. As we’ll see in other races, the young adult gender gap showed up full force Tuesday night.

New Jersey

New Jersey tells a similar story. Among young men, 56 percent reported voting for Democrat Mikie Sherrill, compared with 44 percent for Republican Jack Ciattarelli—a nearly identical result to Virginia. Sherrill’s support among men ages 18-29 was slightly below that of men 30-44 (61%) before dropping to 43 percent among men 45-64 and 45 percent among the oldest male voters.

The young adult gender gap in the Garden State nearly mirrored Virginia’s: 81 percent of women ages 18-29 said they backed Sherrill, a +25 difference over men in the same group.

New York City

In New York City’s mayoral race, exit polls show Democratic Socialist Zohran Mamdani capturing 68 percent of young men—the strongest performance among young men across tonight’s races—with Andrew Cuomo (26%) and Curtis Sliwa (5%) both receiving limited support. Mamdani’s historic campaign weaved an innovative social media campaign with an ambitious, optimistic economic message centered around affordability—one we believe particularly resonates with young men.

CNN’s exit polls also show 84 percent of young women backing Mamdani, 16 points higher than their male counterparts, though a narrower gender gap than in other races.

It bears repeating: we can only extrapolate so much from exit poll data of off-year, blue-state elections. The best available recent estimate for young men’s preferences in an even-year general electorate is Catalist’s estimated Trump +5 projection in 2024. Furthermore, the gender gap that persisted tonight remains a colossal challenge the left must reckon with.

Yet the results offer crucial corrective to those writing off young men as a lost cause for the Democratic coalition. Across Virginia, New Jersey, and New York, majorities of young men aged 18-29 backed Democratic candidates—often by significant margins over their older counterparts. This is not entirely surprising: YMRI finds that on many issues (above all, the economy) young men are turning away from Trump and the GOP.

We’ll have more analysis on these races in the weeks to come, along with lessons to carry into 2026.