Donald Trump won the 2024 election — and the popular vote — last November by turning out Republican voters and building a more diverse coalition than other Republican presidential candidates in years past.
He also improved his performance with younger voters, a demographic Democrats have long dominated. That was thanks in large part to outreach on social media platforms and in communities targeted with the help of prominent personalities like Charlie Kirk.
“We crushed the youth vote, even Democrats acknowledge it,” Kirk said at an appearance this year at the Cambridge Union in the United Kingdom. “Both young men and young women moved to the right dramatically.”
John Della Volpe, director of polling at Harvard Kennedy School’s Institute of Politics, who has studied young voters, said Kirk’s organization’s biggest success came with getting Trump and other GOP leaders to buy into his vision.
“Donald Trump is not president today without the support of young men, and Charlie Kirk deserves and deserved credit not just for organizing young men but persuading an older generation to listen and to invest,” he told ABC News.
Kirk’s name was ubiquitous in focus groups with young voters, he added.
In this March 22, 2018, file photo, President Donald Trump shakes hands with Charlie Kirk, Founder and Executive Director of Turning Point USA, during a panel discussion at the Generation Next Summit in the South Court Auditorium of the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on the White House complex in Washington, D.C.
Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post via Getty Images, FILE
“People recognized that he was able to display an element of strength and masculinity unlike others and what they appreciate was that even though many don’t agree with his positions or rhetoric, they give him credit for showing up and taking questions and free speech,” Della Volpe said.
Kirk expanded on his strategy in an interview with California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, last March.
“Right around 2021 we had a goal: could we move the youth vote ten points over ten years?” Kirk told Newsom on the first episode of the governor’s new podcast. “We believed Democrats were taking them for granted … President Trump harmonized with the strategy by going on podcasts, going on TikTok.”
U.S. right-wing activist and commentator Charlie Kirk appears at a Utah Valley University speaking event in Orem, Utah, U.S. September 10, 2025.
Trent Nelson/The Salt Lake Tribune via Reuters
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