Democrats have a guy problem.
Young men have been fleeing the Democrats for most of this decade - and they're flailing about trying to figure out how to get them back
When Maryland Gov. Wes Moore laid out his legislative agenda during his State of the State address in February, he made a point to single out a particular group.
"We need to better understand and address what's happening with our men and boys," he said, pointing to nationwide decreases in young men entering the workforce or earning a college degree...Now, Democrats are hoping that young men aren't lost to the GOP forever. For several emerging leaders in the party — and potential contenders in the 2028 presidential race — that has meant making these voters a bigger priority, both in their policy proposals and in messaging that is increasingly tailored to them.
The Democrats have been trying to market to men for a while now. And to market to people effectively, you have to understand them.
And like their efforts to understand conservatives and MAGA, the Democrat efforts to "understand men" have traditionally had a bit of a Jane Goodall "Gorillas in the Mist" vibe about them, as if Democrats are observing and responding to something so far beyond their experience they just don't have the vocabulary to express it.
It started becoming obvious two years ago, when Democrats ran hard on the idea that Minnesota governor Tim Walz was someone guys would identify with:
Kamala Harris' presidential campaign has made Tim Walz's stereotypically masculine traits − a sports-lover, military veteran, gun owner and father − central to his introduction to America's voters.
It's been a steady theme for the Democrats over the last two months - visiting college and high school football games, hunting for pheasants, hawking camo hats - as a counterweight to Donald Trump and JD Vance, their Republican rivals who are making a play for the "bro vote" and whose surrogates have tried to cast doubt on the 60-year-old Minnesota governor's macho credentials.
Walz himself ran with it:
Tim Walz has claimed that Maga voters are "scared" of his masculinity.
The former vice-presidential candidate said Republicans targeted him during the election campaign because they were fearful he would win over male voters.
"I think I scare them a little bit, [which is] why they spend so much time on me," Mr Walz told Gavin Newsom during an episode of the California governor's new podcast.
It's hard to tell what part of Walz face-planted the hardest - his debate performance or his image as a he-man:
Tim Walz fixes trucks with those jazz hands?
— Ryan Wilson (@RyanDWilsonMN) December 10, 2025
Not buying it. https://t.co/GA3Vg72Z2L pic.twitter.com/8iUsqvV9Af
So here we are in another cycle.
And the entertaining question isn't so much "what is a guy?" as it is "what does the Democratic Party think a guy is?"
Is it Zohran Mandani?
But wait: Actually, the newest icon of Democratic power fits that bill almost exactly. He's a Carhartt-wearing, marathon-running, fully bearded dude who loves to chow down. He's obsessed with the Knicks and recently made a basketball-themed campaign ad. When he was campaigning last year, he toured the edgy "manosphere" podcast world and easily traded riffs about bench pressing and shitposting. Analysts describe his politics using testosterone-forward metaphors like "muscled," "power broker," and "kingmaker."
This is, of course, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani — who's able to go one-on-one with President Donald Trump, wears the hell out of a suit, and channels the populist energy of Bernie-bro politics more effectively than anyone else under 80. "His vision, whether you like it or not, is incredibly bold and in your face," which is a traditionally masculine attribute, says Pawan Dhingra, a sociologist at Amherst College.
The model of the modern Marxist man? Sure.
Guy-like "manliness?" Call me set in my ways, but I'm not sure a silver-spoon private-school kid whose only private sector experience is as a failed rapper is going to get a lot of traction in the Permian Basin.
But among K Street consultants whose idea of a blue-collar guy comes from a cologne ad? Perhaps.
This brings us to Graham Platner, the Dems' "suspended" candidate in Maine, who was until five minutes ago the Democrats' latest attempt at figuring out guys.
People in NYC used to say that Trump was "a poor person's idea of a rich person"--which was supposed to be a dunk and actually described his political appeal. Dems trying to tap that same populist energy instead selected a rich person's idea of a poor person. https://t.co/ihlW9oAiyh
— Megan McArdle (@asymmetricinfo) July 8, 2026
The choices of Platner, Mamdani and Walz tell us less about what guys are than what the K Street consultant class thinks guys are; somewhere between flannel-clad Elmer-Fudd-like "knuckleheads" and silver-spoon kids larping as down-east working stiffs.
I'm in no hurry for them to figure it out.
