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
In the last five presidential elections, Democrats have won the White House when they captured at least 60% of young voters — a benchmark Kamala Harris failed to meet, winning 54% of voters under 30 years old, compared to Trump’s 43%.
“When Democrats win 60% of the youth vote, they win elections,” Della Volpe said. “The job of a Republican is to decrease that margin.”
According to ABC News exit polling, Trump performed better with voters under 30 — winning 43% to Harris’ 54% — than any Republican presidential candidate since 2004, when George W. Bush won 45% of voters under 30.
Trump drew even with Harris with men under 30 (49% to her 48%), an 8-point improvement from the 2020 presidential election.
Harris won 61% of young women, compared to Trump’s 38%.
Charlie Kirk, founder and executive director of Turning Point USA, speaks during a Turning Point PAC town hall at Dream City Church, June 6, 2024 in Phoenix, Arizona.
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In the key swing state of Michigan, Trump won 50% of young voters, compared to 47% for Harris. In Wisconsin, he won 48% of those voters, compared to 49% for Harris; In Pennsylvania, he won 44% of young voters vote compared to her 55%.
In these three “Blue Wall” states that Trump flipped in 2024, he improved on his 2020 performance with voters under 30 by 9-13 points, depending on the state, according to ABC News exit polling.
Nationally, Trump also won 57% of young white men without college degrees, compared to 40% for Harris.
In the Sun Belt swing state of Arizona, Kirk’s home state, Harris managed to win 65% of voters under 30. But Democrats lost ground with Latino voters and other groups of voters Republicans were able to motivate, giving Trump the edge.
That may have also been partially due to Kirk’s efforts as an organizer.
Despite his embrace of false stolen-election claims in 2020, and after GOP candidates were shut out of statewide office in Arizona in 2022, Kirk and his group established a “Ballot Chasers” program in 2024.
Turning Point USA Founder Charlie Kirk speaks during a campaign rally for Republican presidential nominee, former U.S. President Donald Trump at Desert Diamond Arena, August 23, 2024 in Glendale, Arizona.
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It was a $100-plus million effort to reach and mobilize hundreds of thousands of low-propensity Trump supporters in battleground states like Arizona and Wisconsin, and get them to vote early and potentially by mail, despite Trump’s public misgivings about mail-in voting.
It was one of many outside programs that effectively made up the Trump campaign’s outsourced ground game.
“I’m not sure he moved a lot of people, but he organized a lot of people who shared his views,” Della Volpe said.
Republicans debated the share of credit Kirk’s “Turning Point USA” deserved for its contributions to the larger effort — but Trump and his campaign credited Kirk and his organization’s work for pushing them to victory last year.
“Charlie Kirk will tell you, TikTok helped, but Charlie Kirk helped also,” Trump said at the White House in May about Kirk’s contributions to his winning campaign. “He’s done great, and I appreciate all the help.”
