Donald Trump¡¯s ¡°machismo¡± campaign successfully energised an?¡°untapped reservoir¡± of?young white male college voters to?help drive him to?victory, according to?academics.

Exit polls show a?huge swing towards the Republican among young voters in?this month¡¯s presidential election, which Rachel Blum, an?assistant professor of?political science at?the University of Oklahoma, said was leading experts to?question ¡°conventional wisdom¡± around college students.

Dr Blum said the idea that college students were reliably Democratic was based on the narratives around elite universities ¨C but the reality was that many students vote the way their parents do and the election results could be evidence of a ¡°backlash¡± against that stereotype.

¡°Conservative students are more comfortable being conservative. There has always been an untapped reservoir of very conservative students in many, many colleges and universities in at least half the country,¡± she said.

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Videos of college students ¨C often white men ¨C wildly celebrating Mr Trump¡¯s win at a number of institutions, including the University of Missouri and Liberty University, went viral.

Although too early for a full breakdown of the results, Dr?Blum said it appeared that progressive young voters did not turn out for Kamala Harris in the numbers they did for Joe Biden ¨C in contrast to young conservatives.

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¡°Young men don¡¯t tend to turn out a lot, so any increase in that turnout and any increase in their political engagement is significant,¡± she said.

Some have credited Barron Trump, a student at New York University¡¯s Stern School of Business, for .

Others have pointed towards the activist and author Charlie Kirk as key ¨C even . The 31-year-old is the founder of Turning Point USA, which bills itself as the largest conservative youth activist organisation in the country, and is host of one of the country¡¯s most popular podcasts.

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- Target the radical left accreditation system
- Purge the Marxist DEI bureaucrats
- Unleash the DOJ to prosecute schools that continue pushing racial discrimination
- Seize¡­

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¡ª Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11)

Matthew Boedy, an associate professor of rhetoric and composition at the University of North Georgia, said Mr?Kirk and his campus rallies had a ¡°massive impact¡± in mobilising young conservatives.

¡°[Students] do vote overwhelmingly Democratic but not in high numbers,¡± he said.

¡°If you have a fickle conservative person¡­and you go knock on their door and you give them a podcast and you give them a red hat and you give them something to cheer about at an event¡­you have them.¡±

In his campaigning for Mr Trump, which often featured attacks higher education itself, Mr Kirk sought to energise what he has called the ¡°Bro?Vote¡±. Since election day, he has boasted of signing up thousands of disengaged young men in fraternities in Arizona State University alone.

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On his ¡°You¡¯re Being Brainwashed Tour¡±, he would typically debate left-wing students in swing-state colleges ¨C with those videos then being viewed millions of times online, and often appealing to non-college educated voters as?well.

According to Dr Boedy, Mr Trump and Mr?Kirk were popular on college campuses and among fraternities because they were seen as possessing ¡°machismo¡±, were aggressive towards their opponents and were able to?¡°own the libs¡±.

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patrick.jack@timeshighereducation.com