Gen Z women, the most liberal demographic in the country, are becoming a powerful share of the electorate. Yet conservatives are misreading what actually drives our political decisions. While the legacy media fixates on a supposed surge of right-leaning youth, the reality is more complicated. Young women are not moving right because Republicans keep repeating the same mistakes Democrats made with young voters in the last election cycle. 

Last year, I wrote about former presidential hopeful Kamala Harris’s failed attempt at being hip with the cool girls during her 2024 campaign. During a year when women were suffering sexual violence in conflicts from Gaza to Ukraine, and when the prospect of marriage and family felt economically out of reach, Harris had countless opportunities to show young women she understood our concerns. Instead, she fixated on the fact that British musician Charli XCX made a pop culture reference about her, invited social media influencers to the Democratic National Convention, and appeared on a sex podcast while Americans were dying in a hurricane. Harris’s endeavor to win over the youth was more than wildly unsuccessful. It was vapid, unserious, and embarrassing. It communicated a belief that young women’s concerns begin and end with oversexed pop culture. 

Unfortunately, the opposing party took one look at this abysmal playbook and rushed to copy it point for point. Contrary to the misinformation peddled by left-wing reactionaries, the political Right has taken great strides to advance women’s rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. It was the Republican Party, after all, that advanced women’s suffrage. President Trump made history with his cabinet picks, the elevation of Susie Wiles and Karoline Leavitt to positions of prominence, and his wife Melania authoring the TAKE IT DOWN Act, which criminalizes non-consensual AI deepfake pornography. Bulldogs like Nancy Mace are fighting for womanhood to be recognized as an objective biological reality rather than an identity open to manipulation or erasure. Yet none of this is what the Republican Party markets to young women. 

Instead, we are inundated by AI slop, immature jokes, and influencers wildly disconnected from the realities of the average American woman in her twenties. Under the Trump Administration, over 62,000 missing migrant children have been located. Many of these were teenage girls forced into sexual exploitation. They have since been rescued and are receiving proper care. A recent Department of Homeland Security (DHS) operation led to the arrest of 150 sex offenders illegally living in America. Rather than highlighting these acts of enforcing public safety and protecting human dignity, DHS and the White House choose to post childish memes. Even Mace wastes time and loses face by indulging in weird flirtations with Twitter anons.

How can I tell my peers who sit politically on the fence that Republicans have our best interests in mind when the House Judiciary GOP claimed they were releasing the Epstein Files, only to post a “rickroll” video? Unlike the Democratic Party, the Republican Party is robust in substance. They just fail to demonstrate that. In order to win Gen Z women over, the Republican Party needs to stop trolling and start acting like adults worthy of our votes and tax dollars. 

The Democratic political influencer sphere ranges from edits of Kamala Harris dancing and rambling about coconut trees to students of a university with a $71,000 annual price tag chanting “eat the rich.” The MAGA influencer sphere pushes equally shallow and self-absorbed drivel. As a young conservative woman, nearly every time I scroll through social media, I encounter a new influencer prattling on about how we are going to “make America hot again.” I can say with confidence that I and the vast majority of my peers care more about a strong dollar and being able to take public transportation without being set on fire by a career criminal than if we are calendar ready. Similar to the Democratic approach, the Republican appeal to young women is indicative of clueless individuals who think we prioritize looking pretty, good vibes, and owning the libs over tangible policy.

Gen Z women are not unreachable; we are simply unimpressed. After years of political leaders substituting theatrics for serious engagement, young women are demanding a political ethos rooted in safety, stability, and respect for reality. Conservatives are uniquely positioned to meet those needs, but only if they abandon the performative online antics and start speaking to us like adults with genuine stakes in America’s future.

If the Republican Party wants to win over young women, it must showcase what it actually values: a commitment to public safety, economic opportunity, biological truth, and a culture that treats women with dignity rather than as marketing targets. Gen Z women are paying attention. The question is whether the Republican Party will finally pay attention to us.