Why bro culture is invading politics

The presidential campaigns are working hard to win over male voters. Vice President Kamala Harris said in a recent interview that she needs to “earn the vote” of Black men. And former president Donald Trump is hitting up the podcast circuit to reach young male audiences. Now, a brotastic new ad from the voter group White Dudes for Harris offers some insight into how some men are messaging their own gender. The ad makes the case for voting for Harris using language you might hear from a right-wing podcast host. “Hey, white dudes,” the narrator opens over an electronic beat. “I think we’re all pretty sick of hearing how much we suck.” White men get a bad rap, the narrator continues, which he blames on guys like Trump and his “MAGA buddies,” who are “shouting nonsense in their stupid red hats and acting like they speak for us when they don’t.” The ad is part of a $10 million buy in the swing states of Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, and while it might seem heavy-handed and full of gender tropes—like the political version of an unnecessarily gendered product of, say, Dude Wipes—it does show how important male voters will be in deciding the election. Winning over men A strong showing with male voters was key to President Joe Biden’s victory in 2020. Black men voted for Biden by a 75-point margin, and Biden cut Trump’s margin among white men down to 17 points from the 30-point margin Trump won by in 2016, Pew Research Center data shows. While Harris leads Trump among female voters 58% to 37%, according to a national poll recently released by NBC News, she trails among male voters at 40% to Trump’s 52%. Hence, the imperative to woo male voters. As pro-Trump influencers behind the voter turnout initiative, Send the Vote, are working to grow Trump’s lead among men, the Harris campaign is doing its own messaging, albeit in less-conspicuous ways than White Dudes for Harris. Harris’s male running mate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, filmed a recent video working on his 1979 International Harvester Scout. Titled “The Manual with Tim Walz,” the video is like a political ad disguised as a Car Talk episode. Walz compares reading a car’s manual, to learn how it works, to reading Project 2025 to learn what former president Donald Trump’s allies and former advisors have planned for a second term. Notably, the video is filmed in a traditionally masculine setting to highlight Walz’s handiwork with a car engine. The video ends in a very dad way, showing the would-be vice president getting in the passenger seat to let his daughter take a turn at the wheel. In another video put out by the campaign, Walz talks to a group of young men. In the video, the former high school coach—an identity the campaign is eager to play up—sounds like he’s speaking to a team at halftime. “Go get ’em,” he says. “Talk to your friends. Some of them are going to say, ‘Look, I’m not that into politics.’ The answer to that is: Too damn bad, politics is into you. So get engaged, go vote.” One member of the group tells Walz that two of their buddies who were previously undecided have since decided to vote Harris-Walz. It’s a reminder that you don’t always need a podcast mic to speak to and win over male voters.