Young Voters Helped Trump Win. How Do They Feel Now? | WSJ

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- South Carolina is a reliable Republican stronghold, but not right here in Richland County. It's the state's youngest county by population, home to the state's capital, Columbia, and the University of South Carolina. I'm Josh Dawsey, chief political correspondent

at the Wall Street Journal. I've spent the past decade investigating Washington's most powerful politicians. - There's nobody that writes more than Josh. He'll write four stories about me a day, all different subjects. - But it was here at

USC where I really started my career. Like many Southern universities, the school's admissions are booming, driven by an influx of out-of-state applications. In this episode of Rooted In, I traveled back to my college town to speak with current

students, faculty, and the state's governor to find out what's driving young people south and to the polls in November. Young voters, particularly men, bolstered Trump's win in 2024, but recent polling shows growing disapproval of his performance among 18

to 29 year olds. That's not to say Democrats are better off. Favorability for both parties among young people is low. - Generation Z has so much cynicism just kind of baked into us. We see politicians coming in with

these promises and yet I'm not seeing any products being delivered. - I came back to find out if young voters' enthusiasm for Trump has shifted, even in deep red South Carolina. These are old railroad cars. They turn them

into premium luxury tailgating areas. These will go for $250,000 or more. - It's a lot different I think from when we were in college because you have so many more out-of-state people coming in. I mean, there were still

a lot when we were back in school, but coming back now, man, it's completely, completely different from when we were here. - I also wonder what that will mean for the state's politics. If these folks move in and

they stay, I mean, you know, South Carolina's been a Republican state as long as you and I have been alive. Will there be demographic shifts? I don't know. - Census Bureau data shows that over 60% of bachelor degree

holders stay in South Carolina a year after graduation. And like many other universities in the South, USC has attracted tens of thousands of out-of-state students in recent years. If these students decide to stay, it could change the political

complexion of South Carolina. Michael Amiridis is the university's president. Ahead of the game against Mississippi State, he told me that almost 80% of the more than 69,000 applications the university received this year were from outside South Carolina. Talk

to me about the influx of out-of-state students who are coming to the university and why you think they're coming. - Every student is different, right? But of course the priority, the first priority is the academic part. What kind

of degrees we offer, what quality of faculty we have, but it's not only academics, right? There is a number of other issues. It's the facilities that we have. It is the student organizations. There are a number of them,

athletics. - What's your sort of philosophy on how to manage a university that has a wide divergent student body, but you know, trying to stay as neutral as possible? - Well, if you're thinking about becoming a president of

a university, think twice about it. It's not a good job right now. - Trump has waged high profile campaigns against universities across the United States during his second term, particularly at Ivy League schools. The administration has withheld billions

in federal grants, restricted foreign student visas, and sought an end to diversity programs. USC has avoided the worst of the headlines, but it's still lost millions in federal grants as a result. - There are a lot of problems

for higher education right now. The polarized political situation is one, right? But we also have problems with the demographics and the number of high school graduates that they're becoming smaller and smaller and will continue. I'm trying to avoid

the noise, which is not easy. I have it every day, but focusing on what is expected from US - He wants to ask me a question, he said, and then we're going to do a little walk. - Well,

what I want to ask you is I have something here, right? - Okay, this is dangerous. - It's about a Toyota in 2012, right? - I have a parking ticket. - You also had the record. - Oh, I

have more parking tickets? - Most parking tickets in one year. - That might be true. - They're all yours. - Oh, wow. That's not good. Do you take Venmo? A huge part of my time at USC was spent

as editor-in-chief of the student newspaper, The Daily Gamecock. Since the campus and our country's politics have changed so much in the last 15 years, I came back to talk with a student who has a job today. - Good

to see you. - Thanks for having me in. - Does it look different? - It looks about the same, actually. I spent more time here than I did in any classroom in South Carolina. I probably spent 30 or

40 hours a week in here, if not more. - What was South Carolina and politics like when you were here? - I think South Carolina was always a red state, right? But I do think the politics were a

little less polarizing in some ways. I remember McCain being on campus in 2008 against Barack Obama, and remember we're sort of covering that election and it felt very different than covering Trump. Do you sense a lot of enthusiasm

for Trump on campus? - It depends on where you are, but I think, yeah, a lot of times, yes. Less so in the last year or two, but when I first got here, there was definitely more. - Trump

is not on the ballot in November, but his influence looms large in South Carolina heading into the Midterms. Trump encouraged Lindsey Graham's sister, Darline, to run for a seat after the longtime senator died in early July. Despite concerns

about her experience, Graham narrowly won and will now face Democrat Annie Andrews, a pediatrician and gun safety advocate. To better understand the key issues on young voters' minds, I sat down with a group of students, two who say

they vote more conservative, and two, who lean more liberal. On the economy, how do you feel sort of entering the workforce? Do you feel good about the job market? - I'm not as concerned about the job market as

much as things like housing costs and the ability of the job market to supply jobs that can pay for housing costs. - For me, I always wanted to go like straight into the workforce after college and then come

back and get my master's degree, but now I'm kind of leaning more towards staying in Columbia and getting my master's because I don't want to like make a move where it's like thousands of miles away from home and

then I have to figure out like is my salary going to be enough to support myself and pay for rent and pay for my car insurance and groceries? - The economy is central to young voters nationally, not just

those in South Carolina. A recent Harvard youth poll found that nearly half of young respondents say rising prices and inflation are an urgent crisis. Did you hope that the Trump administration would do more on cost of living and

the economy, or do you think it's such a structural issue that it's not really the administration's fault? - I think it's both and, I mean, the war in Iran certainly, you know, particularly with gas prices was not something

that I was expecting. That certainly has affected the way that I view the Trump administration. But to your point, it is- - Negatively or? - Probably negatively. Because I mean, it directly is affecting our gas prices and our

cost of living domestically. But yeah, to your point about the structural issues, I do think that yeah, our economy's complicated and expecting any administration to fully solve it, it just seems unrealistic to me. - Is there anything he's

done to the country or the Republican party that you actually like? - I mean, I think that Trump has a remarkable ability to kind of, you know, pull everyone together in some ways. Like I said, he is a

larger than life figure, and so especially in 2016, you just see people being like, oh, like getting behind him in some ways and kind of pulling together kind of a disparate party. - If I could speak briefly on

the Republican Party, just can't help but thinking about like currently and what's happening in South Carolina with Darline Graham. I myself do not support Trump, but just looking at what he's done to the Republican Party, we had a

lot of great Republican candidates and he backed Darline Graham someone who really didn't have a lot of political experience at all. This is a red state. At the end of the day, I have hope for the Democratic Party,

but I know at the end of the day it's probably gonna be a Republican that wins. So when I'm looking at the potential elections, I'm looking for which Republican candidate would I like to see win. - You sort

of understand the place and the problem about we're going to get a Republican, so we should get a Republican that I like the most. - Exactly and which Republican is the best candidate, because at the end of the

day, they probably will win since we are the minority. - I gave each of you a microphone and said, "This is your chance to talk to Washington about what young voters care about." What would you say? - I

think it goes to rhetoric. I know a lot of people my age and some very close friends who are disillusioned with the state of politics because of not only things like cost of living, but also the rhetoric that

politicians espouse these days. Instead of it being like, "Okay, how can we reach across the aisle and how can we push a bipartisan bill?" It's all of the people on the other side are evil and they all are

socialists or they are all fascists or something like that. And that rhetoric only contributes to a divide. - Not a single Democrat has won statewide office in South Carolina for two decades. - The hospital. - Henry McMaster is

the state's longest serving governor in history. - Hello. - When McMaster was lieutenant governor, he was one of the first statewide elected officials in the country to back Trump's 2016 White House campaign. He even invited Trump to attend

USC's heated rivalry game against Clemson in 2023. We were over on campus today talking to some young voters, some, you know, to various people, and we just heard time and time again from people talking about how much a

gas costs now that doubled the gas prices. I'd be curious if you think in this moment, the Republican Party, President Trump, or the party in general is doing enough to talk about affordability with people and that putting out

solutions that people feel like are actually making their lives better. - Well, one thing I think is making our lives better is we're not suffering from incoming missiles from Iran right now. And we know for a fact that

they are a danger to us. They have stated so over and over. They've written it, they've spoken it. I think that the country's so prosperous. We've been so safe. Everything has gone so well over the years to get

us to where we are, that people assume it's like this everywhere and it always will be and changes like giving more money away to people. - But the sort of inflation in it, the gas is $4-5 $6 a

gallon in some places. Those seem like real concerns to people though, right? - Those are real concerns and I hope they'll go down. And I think if the Trump administration is successful, which I think they will be in

these various areas, I think they will go down. - Almost halfway through a second term, where do you think Trump stands with South Carolina Republicans? Has there been some erosion or do you think he's just as strong as

ever before? - I think he's just as strong as ever. I've been to the events back then and just recently. People are delirious to see him. They literally love him and they say so. - Trump is still quite

popular in South Carolina, but it's evident that some of the enthusiasm is fading as voters struggle with higher living costs and grow tired of the war in Iran. I spoke with both in and out of state students and

heard how these anxieties are reshaping the way they plan for their own futures. A defining issue that could sway elections to come. The question is, can either party prove they have a plan that will win over a generation

tired of empty promises? - Because you can say like, "Oh, vote for me. I'm gonna make the cost of living cheaper. You know, everything's gonna be easier." But how do you actually plan on doing that?