Why some Gen Z voters who backed Trump now regret their decision

Gen Z Americans were a key part of President Trump's winning coalition in 2024. Nearly two years later — and with early voting underway in multiple states for the midterms — some of that youth support has faded.

That sentiment was on display in a focus group, conducted last week, of eight Generation Z Trump voters, who reported varying degrees of unhappiness and disappointment over the state of politics, with some going as far as to say they regret supporting Trump in 2024.

The conversation was conducted virtually by Navigator Research, a left-leaning polling group. Participants ranged in age from 20 to 29 and spanned five states: Florida, Mississippi, Ohio, Texas and South Carolina — places Trump won by double digits in the last election. Two of those states, Texas and Ohio, are home to competitive races that could be key to control of the Senate.

For participants who now regret their vote for Trump, much of their frustration centers on what they see as a string of failed promises. When asked to give the president's job performance a letter grade, a majority of participants, 6 out of 8, assigned him a grade of either D or F, while two selected C.

"I just feel like nothing went correctly. I just feel like everything got worse," said John, a 29-year-old Black man from Florida. (Participants agreed to be part of the focus group on the condition that they be identified by only their first names.)

John, who identifies as a Republican and has voted for Trump since 2016, gave the president an F and said he now plans to support Democratic candidates this fall, in large part because of the strain he has felt from rising costs.

"I'm willing to give the other side a chance," he added. "I don't think they're going to make a total change. But things are just horrible right now for me. So I feel like even if they make one or two small changes, it will probably benefit me."

Though the focus group is not a nationally representative survey, the frustrations shared by participants echoed Navigator polling released in August, which found that nearly a third of Gen Zers — those under age 30 — regret voting for Trump, higher than older generations do.

Trump's rising unpopularity among young voters isn't in a vacuum. He has also lost ground with other key groups that shifted right in 2024, notably independents and Latino voters — and in a year when the Republican Party is facing political headwinds, it's unclear whether that expanded coalition from two years ago can show up at the same strength now.

Shifting toward Democrats — or not 

While some voters, like John in Florida, do feel compelled to vote blue this cycle in response to Trump, 4 of the 8 who took part in the focus group said they still planned to back Republicans this year. Three said they'd vote for Democrats; one participant said she was still deciding.

Matthew, a 25-year-old Black man living in Texas, said he doesn't regret his support for the president and gave him a C grade.

"I feel like he's done a really good job closing the border," he said. "I also do appreciate his efforts in trying to end some of the conflicts that began under the last administration, besides the fact that the Iran conflict hasn't really worked the best, from my perspective."

He plans to vote in the midterm elections and argued that Trump will be able to carry out more of his agenda if Republicans can secure a larger majority in both the House of Representatives and the Senate, although national polls indicate that the GOP is more likely to lose seats.

But enthusiasm is a different question.

Courtney, a 20-year-old white woman based in South Carolina, said she doesn't regret her vote for Trump in 2024 and overall aligns with Republicans, but she did admit she has grown more distrustful of both major political parties, particularly on foreign policy.

"I just really do feel like we would be in this situation either way. … Education, the economy, everything else would be so much better if we weren't pumping money out into other countries that aren't ours," she said, referring to U.S. aid for Israel and the decision to go to war with Iran.

"I don't think it matters what side you vote on — that's why I voted red, because I agree with those policies more — but at the end of the day, what we do in the Middle East is going to be not at all up to [the] party [in power]," she said during the focus group.

That sense of political disaffection may underscore a growing challenge for both Republicans and Democrats moving forward as both try to repair ties with this generation.

"As we see people regret their vote for Trump, sour on the Republican Party and Republican policies, that doesn't necessarily mean that they're swinging right over to Democrats," said Melissa Toufanian, the managing director at Navigator.

Toufanian points to Navigator's own polling, which has found that even as the GOP has lost trust on economic issues, "it's not a one-for-one with Democrats gaining that trust."

"A lot of people are moving to this middle, this category that 'I don't trust either party,'" she said. "We are seeing people who are becoming increasingly pessimistic about our political parties and our political system, and they're not feeling strongly that either party can really deliver for them."