Why Did Democrats Lose White Men? John Fetterman Has the Answer.
Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) was blunt about why the Democratic Party struggles to win White men. He tackled the question during an appearance on Tara Palmeri’s show and faced a direct prompt from Palmeri: “How do Democrats win back white men like yourself?”
Fetterman’s immediate response was unguarded: “I don’t know. And truthfully, I’m not sure. I’m not sure if that’s possible, to be honest.”
He went on to lay out what he sees as a longer trend among male voters: “I think that’s been seriously eroding for a while. And in some cases, in the conversations I’ve had, a lot of people don’t even want to say it publicly, but they just feel like the other side seems like it’s, ‘men are the problem.’ Men are to blame, or their masculinity is toxic. And if you’re not able to conform to a very strict definition of what’s considered appropriate, then, hey, ‘I’m going to find an alternative.’ And they’ve done that.”
Fetterman also pointed out that the migration away from Democrats has been years in the making and showed up clearly in recent elections. White men favored President Donald Trump by about 20 points in the 2024 election, and White women leaned toward Trump by four points.
Republican congressional candidates also won more White male voters than Democrats, reinforcing the same pattern down-ballot. This shift in male turnout and preference is one reason the GOP performed strongly among men across multiple contests.
But the story of male voters shifting right isn’t limited to White men. About 21 percent of Black male voters supported Trump in 2024, and Republicans made gains with some Black voters in congressional races.
Hispanic men also turned out for Trump and GOP congressional candidates more than in past cycles, showing a broader male swing rather than an isolated demographic blip. Those combined changes make the Democratic problem with male voters more serious than a single-group collapse.
The party’s messaging and cultural posture are part of the explanation, according to critics on the right and some Democrats like Fetterman. Over the last decade, elements of the left have increasingly framed men as part of the problem, which many men perceive as an attack on their identity.
That tone showed up publicly during the campaign when Doug Emhoff, husband of former Vice President Kamala Harris, addressed masculinity on television and framed it in stark terms. He said, “there’s too much of toxicity — masculine toxicity out there, and we’ve kind of confused what it means to be a man, what it means to be masculine.”
Emhoff added, “You’ve got this trope out here where you have to be tough, and angry, and lash out to be strong.”
Democratic strategists also made missteps trying to press specific voting blocs. At one point Democrats asked Black men why they might sit out, with former President Barack Obama asking directly, “And you are thinking about sitting out?” and adding, “Part of it makes me think — and I’m speaking to men directly — part of it makes me think that, well, you just aren’t feeling the idea of having a woman as president, and you’re coming up with other alternatives and other reasons for that.”
That approach did not play well in many quarters, and critics seized on it as evidence the party had adopted a Women’s Party posture that left men—across races—feeling marginalized. Richard Reeves observed that “the Democrats effectively ran as the Women’s Party,” and others warned that denigrating men alienates potential allies.
Reshma Saujani put it plainly: “No one wants to be part of a movement that ignores or even denigrates them.” That sentiment helps explain why insulting or lecturing men has produced political blowback rather than loyalty.
For Republicans and others watching, Fetterman’s candor confirmed a simple political reality: alienate a large slice of voters and they’ll look elsewhere. Unfortunately for them, they are still stuck on stupid when it comes to this issue.
