Gen Z’s aversion to things fascinates people. Young people are already having less sex and dating less. Young people don’t need another reason to avoid each other, but it seems like politics is doing just that.
“Can I ask you, uh, who you voted for?” says 27-year-old teacher, Morgan, the “Kween” for the evening.
A TikTok video posted by the Date Night Podcast shows Morgan sitting in front of a crowd during a Kings and Kweens event in Minneapolis. The Date Night Podcast hosts speed dating shows. Contestants go on several consecutive blind dates and then choose a winner at the end of the night. On its website, the Date Night Podcast boasts 65% of second dates secured.
The Date Night Podcast TikTok account is home to multiple dating show clips, discussing everything from favourite restaurants to biggest “icks”. Their most popular video is Morgan’s date night, pinned at the top with over 4.6 million views.
“That’s a tough question,” is all one of the contestants, Matt, can say before the audience lets out multiple jeers. “Look at all these lovely people,” he continues over more noise.
An exchange of looks continues, with the relative silence only broken by Morgan’s comments of “oof” and “I’m scared.”
“Is that gonna be the out for me?” Matt says.
Morgan swiftly replies, “Uh huh, yeah.”
Though the TikTok video shows the downfall of Morgan and Matt’s speed dating journey, the full episode tells a more complete story. Morgan got along with Matt in the first round. She chose him to be in the final two, saying he was easy to talk to. Yet in the end she eliminated him almost immediately upon finding out his vote choice.
What’s the election got to do with it?
As pundits and pollsters tried to wrap their heads around the presidential election result in November, articles speculating on how the outcome came about were everywhere. Research into different groups went into full force. As the exit polls came in, Americans learned that while many groups had moved towards Trump, specific ones stood out. Particularly, the behavior of young men.
According to data from the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE) at Tufts University, Biden’s 15-point margin over Trump in the 2020 election swung the other way in 2024. Young men voted for Trump over Kamala Harris by a 14-point margin. Despite this, young women had a 17-point margin for Harris.
The politics of dating
An NPR/Marist Poll from May 2025 found that 60% of people between the ages of 18 and 29 believe it is important to date or marry someone that shares your political views—the highest percentage of any age group.
This idea is not new. In 2023, The Washington Post editorial board warned of the “collapse” of American marriage. The board cited a worrying trend of polarisation that came as a result of deepening political associations. An example of this was people’s willingness to associate politics with their identities as a large reason for their worries.
Faith Hill, a staff writer at the Atlantic, has written about declining romance and the use of dating apps.
“You see that young men are moving further to the right, young women growing more progressive. And I think, for a lot of women in particular, it can just sort of feel like, ‘This is not a time where I trust men,” said Hill in an interview with Audie Cornish on CNN.
Are women less trusting of dating?
Videos showing how politics impacts dating have sprung up all over social media since the election. Kelly Johnson dated a man for three months before finding out he had lied about who he voted for. Her video, which now has 1.2 million views, serves as a warning to others.
In the video, Johnson describes broaching the topic of politics. She says that she told him she was liberal on the first date, but couldn’t figure out his leaning.
“Second date I decide to be more intentional about it and just directly ask him, like, are you politically involved,” she says in the video.
She says that he described himself as more moderate, saying that he had voted for Kamala Harris. She then says that they continued dating for the next two months and continued to have political conversations.
Johnson continues that he asked her if she wanted to be exclusive, and she agreed. However, two days later he sent her a message.
“It said I haven’t been honest with you about who I align with politically,” Johnson says in the video.
Johnson recounts how the message explained that he hoped, once she knew him better, she could look past it. She then asked him what he had been dishonest about, to which he replied that he voted for Trump. Johnson ends the video with a warning:
“People are lying about this, because they know it’s important to somebody else.”
Are Gen-Z really that far apart?
Worries about the politicization of dating transcend voting. While those videos show women using a vote for Trump as a red flag, polls show that Gen Z women and men differ on political issues.
In a piece for Vox, Christian Paz outlines several reasons why Democrats are losing support among young men. Paz highlights a growing difference in how men and women identify politically.
“Young women are identifying as more liberal, but not necessarily more Democratic. Young men, meanwhile, are identifying as more Republican, but not more conservative,” Paz said in the article.
A central theme in these gender differences is a divergence in priorities. Paz highlights this in a conversation with Daniel Cox of the American enterprise institute.
“You look at where young women are on gun control and climate change and reproductive health and LGBTQ rights, and they prioritize these things. Young men are less likely to prioritize any of them. They support some amount of gun control, they’re more pro-choice than pro-life, but it’s not that central to their politics or political identity,” said Cox.
According to data from CIRCLE on the 2024 election, both genders prioritized the economy. However, young men were more focused on immigration while young women prioritised health care and abortion in their choice.
Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, Dr. Rebecca Gill, explained that women are likely to prioritize these issues beyond the voting booth.
“The MAGA movement has leaned into a lot of policies that directly target the advancement and autonomy of women, so women are likely to care more about the politics of their potential opposite-sex suitors than men do,” Gill said.
She pointed to right-wing policies that are often unpopular among women voters, such as limits on reproductive care and abortion restrictions.
It’s not just the election
Recent polling evidence supports this claim further. An NBC poll from September 8 shows a continued gap between men and women between the ages of 18 and 29 on not only Trump’s approval, but key issues.
47% of male respondents to the survey “somewhat” or “strongly” approved of the president’s job, compared to just 26% of female respondents.
But men and women weren’t so far apart on everything. When asked about their personal definition of success, both Gen Z men and women ranked the same things in the top three: having a job or career you find fulfilling, having enough money to do the things you want to do and achieving financial independence.
Articles have explored the challenges of dating for young men—from high standards to differing worldviews. The Young Men Research project has been investigating these feelings on a wide range of issues.
“We also see a majority of young men believing that women and larger society place too many expectations on them in dating, and roughly half see relationships as financially burdensome and time-consuming. Still, marriage and family remain top aspirations for young men, underscoring the tension between their long-term goals and present frustrations,” said Charlie Sabgir, Research and Strategy Lead at Young Men Research Project.
The NBC poll also shows that using candidate choice as a marker may correspond to priorities in life. Breaking down the numbers by candidate choice, the split between Gen Z men who voted for Trump and Gen Z women, regardless of vote, is clear.
Respondents were asked what was important to their personal definition of success. Gen-Z men who voted for Trump in the election placed having children at the top. Meanwhile Gen-Z women who voted for Harris and who voted for Trump, place this at 12 and six respectively.
Trump-voting Gen Z men, prioritized things like having children and getting married, which was ranked fourth. Gen Z women who voted for Trump were more likely to prioritize achieving financial independence, number one, having a job or career you find fulfilling and owning a home. Getting married came in at number nine on their list.
What happens next?
For Gen Z dating is already a challenge. As politics becomes further connected to worldview, simple identifiers, such as whether somebody voted for Trump, are enough to silence any imaginary wedding bells.
But party ID doesn’t tell the whole story. Despite voting the same way in the election, Gen Z men and women who voted for Trump didn’t define success in the same way. Men opted for a definition based on family values, and women across the spectrum value aspirations related to independence. Gen Z Men who voted for Harris were much closer to Gen Z women across the board.
The Washington Post’s stark warning sees the embrace of politics as the most important part of our identity as the culprit, and ends with a call to avoid this. Yet if men and women differ on fundamental priorities the way forward is uncertain.
The NBC poll, however, does show that even within the political spectrum there is divergence. Figuring out where a potential partner stands may not be as easy as simply asking who they voted for.
