Young Men Helped Elect Trump. Now Many Say They Feel 'Betrayed' - and Just 28 Percent of Men Under 30 Approve of the President, an NBC Poll Finds

One of the defining groups of the 2024 election is showing up to the midterms in a different mood. Young men who backed President Donald Trump in 2024 say they are squeezed by gas prices and soured on the war with Iran, according to MS NOW reporting by Adam Hudacek and Alex Tabet summarized in The Monolith's Nov. 2 morning roundup, read in full this cycle - and many of them are drifting toward Democrats or tuning out of politics altogether ahead of Tuesday's vote.

The polling behind the mood is blunt. An NBC News Decision Desk poll found just 28 percent of men aged 18 to 29 approve of the president, according to NBC's Morning Rundown as summarized in the roundup, and NBC says young men's dissatisfaction could decide close midterm races like Michigan's Senate contest. That race has already been scrambled once this week, when Democratic Rep. Haley Stevens endorsed the Republican, Mike Rogers - a development this station covered Sunday.

The stakes run in both directions. A young-male bloc that stays home lowers Republican turnout in exactly the suburban and exurban counties where House control will be decided; a bloc that switches rather than sits out moves margins twice. Democrats still have to give the group a reason to vote for them rather than simply against the president, and the reporting read this cycle describes drift and disengagement at least as much as conversion.

Texas has its own version of the question. The state's Senate race between Republican Ken Paxton and Democrat James Talarico has drawn heavy young-voter organizing on both sides, and Travis County's early vote set records with a large under-30 share. Whether the national pattern - approval at 28 percent among men under 30 - shows up in Texas turnout on Tuesday is one of the first numbers analysts will read when the polls close.