However, I continue to stress the need for Democrats to better appeal to men and therefore have a better chance at winning back Congress, The White House, and eventually the Supreme Court over the coming years and decades. And even more importantly, focusing on male social issues would improve outcomes for boys and men, and therefore all of us. But so far, I’ve seen very little in terms of a shift in attitude from the DNC.

As of today, my multiple attempts to contact the DNC including my open letter to DNC leadership sent last week have gone completely unanswered but I will continue to reach out. Of course, I’ll let you know of any developments!

Three New Podcast Interviews

I continue to try to get the word out, and there does appear to be growing interest in male social issues and how they connect to politics. Here are three of my recent interviews regarding my book How Democrats Can Win Back Men, review of the 2024 election results including “Sutton’s Key,” and the Democrats’ continued strategy of ignoring male social issues.

“Missing Men: Sutton’s Key to Democratic Wins” - My Six Cents Podcast with Darren Platt

I was honored to appear on Darren Platt’s “My Six Cents” podcast where we had a very level-headed discussion of the issues. With Darren, I heard some important things that I notice are patterns. Darren, like me, was a “Bernie Bro” — a male voter who supported Bernie Sanders back in 2016. However, Darren has felt alienated from Democrats, and in 2024 voted for Trump. This is exactly the type of thing that has led to the Democrats’ downfall. Here’s a clip from the interview

Here’s the full interview on Apple Podcasts:

And here’s a link on Spotify for those who prefer that platform: https://creators.spotify.com/pod/show/darren-platt1/episodes/Missing-Men-Suttons-Key-to-Democratic-Wins-e2v52qh

“Why the Democrats aren't reaching men” - KALW “Book it” Podcast with Angie Coiro - full recording (48 minutes)

Recorded at San Francisco’s NPR affiliate KALW: Book It with Angie Coiro. Click the link to listen: https://www.kalw.org/podcast/book-it/2025-02-14/why-the-democrats-arent-reaching-men

Veteran radio journalist Angie Coiro hosts “Book It,” a series featuring San Francisco Bay Area authors on San Francisco’s NPR affiliate, KALW—91.7 FM. I was highly honored to be invited to come to the studio and discuss my book How Democrats Can Win Back Men and the reasons why Democrats have been losing among men for over four decades.

Many Shades of Green and Spermageddon

Lots of talk about the “Broligarchy” has dominated airwaves, and we also leaned into both environmental issues and what has been termed “Spermageddon” - the alarming decline in sperm counts globally. In fact, I’ve decided to rename “International Sperm Count Decline Awareness Day,” which takes place on June 30 every year, to “Spermageddon Day” — this year will be the 5th Anniversary.

Thanks for reading and listening, and I’ll continue to try to connect with the DNC and let you know if I hear anything!

To my loyal readers: I’m sharing with you a message I have sent to leadership at the Democratic National Committee (DNC). I will let you know if they respond.

Also, if you know of someone connected to the DNC who would be receptive to this idea, please feel free to forward this message and reach out to me. Thanks.

Dear DNC: Create a National Task Force on Men

To the DNC Leadership: Chair Ken Martin, Vice Chairs Artie Blanco, Malcolm Kenyatta, David Hogg, Reyna Walters-Morgan, ASDC President Jane Fleming Kleeb, and all others in DNC leadership,

Congratulations to the new leadership team at the DNC. Chair Martin and team, you have your work cut out for you!

I’m writing because as a registered Democrat of 35 years, I would like to suggest the DNC create a National Task Force on Men, and I’m offering my services to lead the task force.

The Problem: Democrats Consistently Trail
Among Men

Democrats have consistently been performing significantly worse among men than women for decades. This fact is known as the voting gender gap, and it is present among all demographics. There has been a small amount of acknowledgment regarding the voting patterns of certain subgroups of men. For instance, the recent loss of young men to the right has been noted by many pundits (including myself). But it's not just young men that the Democrats alienate, it's all men. It's just that these young men are the latest to shift allegiances to the Republicans. Here is the 2024 presidential election exit poll data for men grouped by age:

Source: nbcnews.com/politics/20…

It’s the middle-aged men, 45-64, that are by far the farthest right-leaning — an astounding R+20!! This figure should be setting off alarm bells at the DNC. Overall, Republicans won men by 12 points according to the same exit poll. With a deficit like this, Democrats face a huge hurdle in trying to take back the White House, Senate, House of Representatives, and ultimately influence the appointment of Supreme Court justices.

The Issues: Men’s Poor Social Outcomes

As I’ve written in my book How Democrats Can Win Back Men and in my Substack blog “Men and the 2024 Election,” there are many social issues affecting boys and men deserving attention that fall completely in line with Democratic values. Here are just a few:

1. Men are now dying 5.9 years earlier than women yet are less likely to be covered by health insurance

2. Men and boys are falling behind in education and comprise only about 40% of college students

3. Men are 93% of the incarcerated, a poor social outcome to be avoided, in a nation with one of the highest incarceration rates in the world

4. Men are much more likely to die of suicide, homicide, opioid overdose, and alcohol-related deaths1

The Reason Men Turn Away:
Men Feel Ignored by Democrats

I have documented in my book and on my blog how despite these and many more social ills, men’s issues have been largely absent in Democratic messaging. Men and boys are largely if not completely ignored in the Democratic Party Platforms (going back years), the Democratic Party’s national website, state Democratic sites, representative sites, in the 2025 proposed budget, the 2024 State of the Union address, and in most communications regarding the 2024 election. Democratic messaging at times is even perceived as hostile toward men by many voters.

It’s time for this to change and for the Democrats to win back men.

The First Step Toward a Solution:
A DNC National Task Force on Men

With brutal losses at the ballot box in 2024 and new leadership in the DNC in 2025, now is the time for a DNC National Task Force on Men and a new strategy to appeal to male voters. At this point, what do you have to lose? Please contact me to discuss more details about how this task force can help support Democratic success both at the ballot box and in shaping better policy for all Americans. I look forward to hearing from you and would welcome the opportunity to walk you through my plan and how I can facilitate a new approach to appealing to all voters by including everyone in Democratic policy and messaging.

Sincerely,

Mark W. Sutton
San Francisco, CA
mark@mark-sutton.com

Click here to listen to the Cross Currents segment with Angie Coiro and Mark Sutton titled “The missing men of the Democratic Party”.

A New Strategy

The Democrats, who lost among men by 12% in 2024 according to presidential exit polls, have now lost The White House, Senate, House of Representatives, and Supreme Court. Isn’t it time for a change of strategy? Among other points, I emphasized the need for the next leadership team at the DNC to understand and appeal to male voters.

I will share the link to the full hour-long interview when it becomes available. About Crosscurrents on KALW:

Thank you and Happy Holidays

I am so grateful to so many people for their support and encouragement this past year. One year ago, my book was a Google Doc draft. Since then, I completed the book, published it on Amazon, and then revised and republished the book after Biden dropped out and passed the baton to Harris.

I visited with people in the political sphere, attended the progressive conference Netroots Nation in Baltimore, and hosted a book launch at Manny’s in San Francisco. I’ve spoken at events, on podcasts from around the world, and on the radio. None of this would have been possible without the support and input of many people — thank you!

I look forward to continuing my work in the new year!

Thanks for reading and wishing you and your loved ones a happy and healthy 2025!

In the 2024 presidential election, exit polls indicate that men voted about +12% for Trump, and women were +8% for Harris. Democrats ignored men and their issues at their own peril, a strategy that clearly failed. Will they change going forward?

Click below to watch the podcast.

Because the two-party system dominates US politics, political capital is earned and spent accordingly. Without a certain amount of party influence, men’s and boys’ issues won’t be properly addressed.

At the same time, the well-being of men and boys shouldn’t be partisan — governmental bodies should support the well-being of everyone, including boys and men. So I believe we need support for issues such as male health, education, and overall well-being both within the parties and also in nonpartisan institutions. Dan and I had an in-depth dialog on the topics of men, the 2024 election, and what’s to follow.

While of course there were many issues that affected the outcome in 2024, including inflation, Biden’s late dropout, and immigration to name a few, better appealing to male voters is a major challenge and opportunity for Democrats going forward. This will also lead to better social outcomes for our boys and men, which helps everyone.

Dan is a veteran in the male advocacy world — his work on men’s issues spans 30 years! His mission on the show:

Links for The Men Need To Be Heard Show

Website: https://menneedtobeheard.com/
📱 Tik Tok: / menneedtobeheard3
📱 Instagram: / menneedtobeheard
📱 Twitter: / menneed2beheard
📱 Facebook: / menneedtobeheard
📱 Rumble: https://rumble.com/user/MenNeedToBeHeard

You can view this and other interviews on my media page.

I sat down with Jennifer L.W. Fink, the host of the On Boys Podcast to talk about how the Democrats could have better appealed to men in the 2024 election and included both boys and men in policy goals. We discussed how the ideas in my book How Democrats Can Win Back Men played out during the campaign and the mindset that needs to change for Democrats to serve all constituents and improve their chances at the ballot box by supporting everyone — including our boys. Listen to the full episode below.

A health professional that has long supported women’s health issues, Jennifer shared how she learned of issues that boys and men face while raising her sons. She writes the Building Boys Bulletin on Substack, and is the author of the book Building Boys: Raising Great Guys in a World That Misunderstands Males.

More Post-election Regret on Democrats’ Attitude Toward Men

Numerous articles and interviews have looked at the fact that Democrats performed poorly among men in 2024. This was true for the male voting bloc as a whole and also specific subgroups including Latino, Black, and young men. This is exactly what I warned about in my book How Democrats Can Win Back Men. Here are a few noteworthy examples:

Pennsylvania Senator John Fetterman, New York Times Interview, Nov. 27, 2024

Why do you think Democrats have struggled with men?

It’s already migrated. In 2016, I was doing an event with the steel workers, across the street where I live, and I was noticing different kind of energy with this, with Trump. It was clear at that time that people were voting for Trump. And the Democrats’ response was, “Aren’t they smart enough to realize they’re voting against their interests?” And that’s insulting, and that’s, I mean, that’s, that’s just not helpful. It’s condescending. And if anything, that reinforces that kind of stereotype.

Telling them that “I know better than you do,” that’s not helpful.

Connecticut Senator Chris Murphy on X/Twitter:

7/ Meanwhile, men tumble into a different kind of identity crisis, as the patriarchy, society's primary organizing paradigm for centuries, rightly crashes. The right pushes an alluring dial back. The left says "get over it". Again, a refusal to listen/offer responsible solutions.

6:19 AM · Nov 10, 2024

James Carville, Politicon, “James Carville: Post Election Message - part 1” Youtube.

9:52 “We’ve got to figure out a way to do something with our male problem that we have. It’s really significant, and it’s really significant among non-white males and lower income males…It’s a huge problem.”

UK Plans First Men’s Health Strategy

I am often asked what can Democrats do to help men, and the first answer and least controversial is to support men’s health. There was already a bill proposed by the Congressional Men’s Health Caucus to create an Office of Men’s Health, but it didn’t get very far.

In the UK, Wes Streeting of the Labour Party (roughly equivalent to the Democrats in the US, the party of the political left) has announced plans to create a men’s health strategy — so at least it’s a “concept of a plan” as we Americans now like to say.

A couple things that I like about this proposal — it is a all males of all ages (yes, including boys!) and demographics, and it includes support for prevention by screening for diseases like prostate cancer. Also, the measure has support from a number of institutions: Movember, the Premier League, the UK Men’s Sheds Association, Prostate Cancer UK, and the African Advocacy Foundation.

Another interesting note: The article states that in the UK, “men die nearly 4 years earlier than women.” They’re actually doing much better than in the US, where men die 5.9 years earlier than women.

If the UK can do it, we can do it here in the US, as well!

You can read the press release here.

How Democrats Lost The 2024 Presidential Election By Alienating Men Driving Them To Trump

Chris Voss and I first spoke in July of 2024, at which time I shared my concerns about the Democrats’ lack of focus on men and their issues, an idea that Chris agreed with. Chris, who is quite informed on gender issues and has hosted many authors including Dr. Warren Farrell, runs a dating group and sees a lot of politics as closely related to personal issues as I wrote in a post at the time, “The Personal Is Political for Men, Too.”

As the returns came in on election night and it became clear Democrats were losing, Chris mentioned that he thought of me and my book How Democrats Can Win Back Men and how the negative numbers among men sank the Democrats this year. “We wanted to invite him back because we were like, holy sh*t, we were talking to the one guy who had it.”

Click the link below to hear a one-minute excerpt in which Chris asked what I would do if I were in charge of the Democratic Party post-election in order to better appeal to men.

https://www.youtube.com/clip/UgkxxK2rAPloIZSbfYGR0Q3L05-Vcq5rAP28

Chris also shared that although he has typically voted Democrat in recent elections, he feels personally, as a man, alienated from the Democrats and didn’t vote Democrat this time — a case in point!

Full version of the Chris Voss Show with Mark Sutton

How Democrats Lost The 2024 Presidential Election By Alienating Men Driving Them To Trump: The Chris Voss Show with Mark W. Sutton (Note: the show is audio only and a full one hour and 45 minutes! We had a lot to discuss.)

Here is a link to the episode page, and you can also listen on Apple Podcasts here. You can subscribe to The Chris Voss Show in multiple ways.

Looking Ahead for Democrats: New DNC Chair in 2025 Needs To Understand Men

While Democrats lick their wounds and devise a new strategy, I highly encourage am pleading with them to pick a new DNC chair who understands the importance of male well-being in addition to the significance of the male vote. Just like other contests, there will be a lot of debate about who may be the best candidate.

I have been highly focused on the 2024 Democratic Party Platform that completely ignored male issues, and so too am I focused on the next head of the DNC. It is vitally important for the next DNC Chair to understand men and their issues. Otherwise, I’m afraid, the party will continue down the losing road. The Republicans now control The White House, Senate, House of Representatives, and the Supreme Court. Isn’t it common sense that it’s time for the Democrats to change course?

I was honored to be a guest on the video podcast hosted by online personality TheTinMen who is based in the UK. We had a deep conversation about how many of the concerns I had in my book How Democrats Can Win Back Men came true. We discussed ways the Democrats ignored men, what Democrats failed to do in terms of appealing to men, and what they should look to do in the future.

Here’s a link to a two-minute clip on X/Twitter. By the way, you can follow me there: https://twitter.com/Mark_W_Sutton

And here’s the full show:

Male Voters vs. Male Social Issues

When I first started this blog in 2023 and published How Democrats Can Win Back Men, I was hopeful that male voters and their issues would become a more important topic this election cycle. Partially, that came true.

The importance of male voters definitely became a central theme to the election, focused on by both media and the parties themselves. Unfortunately for Democrats, that attention came far too late and was not substantive. In 2020, I only identified one video ad that focused on men from the Democrats, and it was from the Lincoln Project. In 2024, however, there were many ads focused on men, from both parties. Although some of those ads, I felt, were not effective, at least they acknowledged men as voters. This is a great development. Going forward, the male vote shouldn’t be taken for granted by either party.

In terms of male social issues, those remained in the background for the most part. I didn’t hear anyone, of any party, mention the longevity gap — men die on average 5.9 years earlier than women, a gap that’s been growing and should be cause for alarm. I didn’t hear a lot of discussion from the parties of boys failing in education, and how men are now only 40% of college students. I didn’t hear much talk of policy issues for men and boys such as support for an Office of Men’s Health. Hopefully, understanding and running on policy solutions to male social issues is the next step for both politicians and the media.

Updated Numbers on the Gender Gap

Voting by gender is tracked via exit polls, and a common poll is the National Election Pool conducted by Edison Research which is used by ABC, CBS, NBC, and CNN. These numbers will continue to be updated for a while until all votes are counted and polling is concluded, typically in December. But here’s how the exit polls look now as reported by ABC:

2024 Presidential Exit Polls as of 11/12/24

Men: 55% for Trump, 42% for Harris; Trump +13%
Women: 53% for Harris, 45% for Trump; Harris +8%

When we speak of the Gender Gap in Presidential Voting, we are looking at the sum of the gap of each gender; so at this time, that gap is 13+8 = 21%. This is in line with recent elections. However, I believe this number is indicative of the continuing gender cultural divide in our country, something I’m trying to address in my work.

As I update the graph of historical presidential voting by gender, a key component of my research, we see that Democrats at -13% among men were well below what I call the “Magic Number” of Men at -8% which they have needed to achieve historically among to win the White House. Conversely, they have won every time they have performed at -8% or better among men. I call this important part of the presidential voting race “Sutton’s Key” as it is a key to the election. It’s held true every election I track, going back to 1972.

If these numbers hold, this will be the worst Democratic performance among men since 1988, the year Democrat candidate Gov. Dukakis famously rode in a tank in attempt to appear strong on military defense and subsequently lost to George H.W. Bush.

If Democrats want to start to turn back the tide in 2026, 2028, and beyond, they’ve got to improve their understanding of and appeal to men. Of course, Democrats need to do a better job of appealing to women, too. But the group that Democrats have been consistently losing, for decades, is men. This is where the most improvement is needed—the data makes that extremely clear.

I’m also not surprised that Trump won the male vote by a significant margin. According to early exit polls, Trump won the male vote by 10%, and Harris won the female vote by 10%. These numbers are preliminary and I suspect will change a bit in the coming weeks, but they are enough to indicate that the Democrats didn’t get nearly what was needed of either the male or female vote to win.

Here’s the updated graph, with data going back to 1972, in which Democrats have won every election when they are -8% or better among men, and lost every time that number was greater than -8%. I call this the “Magic Number,” and I believe it is always a key to the election, and therefore I have named it “Sutton’s Key.”

According to this early data, Trump won among men in all 7 swing states, and by 10% or more in 6 of them. In Pennsylvania, considered earlier to be the potential “tipping point” state, Harris lost men by 16%. Compared to 2020, you can see how much worse Harris did among men in the 7 swing states. In Nevada, 10 points worse! (Arizona and Nevada are not called as of this writing, but Trump has a clear lead in both.)

Not What I Had Hoped, But What the Data Indicates

I had hoped that the polling from the Washington Monthly Gender Gap Tracker at -8.7% for Dems among men (within the margin of error of -8%), combined with strong female voter support, was perhaps enough for Harris to win. However, that wasn’t the case. The gap was actually larger among men, and perhaps most surprising of all was that Harris’s support among women was much weaker than projected. Polling data has come under criticism, but regarding the gender gap, it’s all we have. We don’t collect hard numbers on exactly how many men and women voted for which candidate, just polling data with various methodologies.

Numbers the Democrats should aim for in terms of overall voting by gender are something close to this: +14% among women, and -4% among men; that would have been a strong victory. For comparison, in 2020 Biden exit polls showed +15% among women and -8% among men (that’s according to Edison; other polls varied somewhat). That was a pretty narrow victory. This year, Harris underperformed compared to those numbers among both men and women.

Implications of the Presidential Voting Gender Gap for Democrats

However you slice it, a major problem for the Democrats was their inability to appeal to male voters. Not just certain subsets of men, but ALL men. As I wrote in my book How Democrats Can Win Back Men and here on my blog, the Democratic Party needs to do a much better job understanding men’s and boys’ issues in order to better appeal to them. This campaign season, they failed to do that on numerous occasions. From the Democratic Party Platform, to the DNC, to the Democratic Party website, messaging to men about their issues has been nonexistent. I heard almost nothing about the longevity gap, the issue with boys and education, or other issues that men and boys are facing.

This is not all Harris’s fault—it’s a systemic issue within the Democratic Party. Remember, President Biden was the candidate until July, and they were both supported by dozens of advisors and consultants.

The Democrats have now lost the White House, Senate, and the Supreme Court; the House of Representatives hangs in the balance. When performance is this bad, it’s time to look at a change in leadership and a fresh approach. The Democratic Party needs to take a step back figure out how it can change course regarding its failure among men in America.

In my book, I’ve published two future scenarios — one in which Democrats appeal to men, and one in which they don’t. In 2024, we see what I call the “Democratic Disconnect” scenario is the path they are heading down as the Harris-Walz ticket has lost. Can Democrats figure it out and adjust course?

This year’s campaign has been extraordinary in a number of ways, and with such a tight race according to the polls, anything can happen. The gender gap in voting turned out to be one of the main stories of this election. Between the issue of abortion, the possibility of the first female president, and images of different types of masculinity on each side, gender has been front and center. I want to look at a few of the most important data points.

The 7 Swing States

First, let’s look at the 7 swing states and note that in 2020, Republicans won among men in each even though they lost 6 of the 7. This is why I have stated since last year that Democrats should be focusing on male voters in these 7 states. Here’s the 2020 data (gender data is exit polls, not counts), and the 2024 data is the most recent polling from 538.com:

Compared to 2020, Trump needs to pick up 38 electoral votes in order to win this year. All seven of the swing states are within the margin of error, so he could pick them up here. Hence, most consider this race a tossup.

The Electoral Bias May Be Smaller This Year

Some encouraging news for Dems regarding Electoral Bias. Hillary Clinton won the popular vote by 2.1% and still lost; Biden won the popular vote by 4.5% and just narrowly won in several states to secure the victory. Therefore, I’ve been going along with the assumption that Democrats would need to win nationally by 3%, even 4% to be safe, as a benchmark. However, according to research from The Center for Politics, that may not be true this year. In fact, Electoral Bias, as it’s called, has frequently fluctuated between the parties. (See this graph on the Washington Post for the interactive version.) So, Harris may only need to win the popular vote by a small amount and could still win the Electoral College.

Will the 8% “Magic Line” hold?

One key analysis of gender data I’ve developed is that, according to a popular dataset, Democrats have won every election when they have gotten -8% or better among men. And conversely, they have lost every election when the opposite was true. While this is not etched in stone, it has happened every year since 1972, a fact I have named “Sutton’s Key.”

The best Dems have ever done among women is +16% in 1996, Bill Clinton’s second term. Could Harris beat that? Gender gap data, which is always based on exit polls and therefore imprecise, is notoriously all over the map this year, so it’s difficult to pinpoint a number. But let’s look at a couple of polls to get an indication of the gender gap this year.

NYT/Siena poll late Oct: Harris -14% among men, +12% among women (source)

In previous years, I would have said this was extremely likely to be a Democratic loss. However, this year, the distribution is different, and Democrats have enough in the swing states to possibly win. Again, keep in mind that this gender data has varied widely this year. This is just one poll. Let’s look at the Washington Monthly’s Gender Gap Tracker created by Bill Scher which aggregates data from many polls:

Washington Monthly Gender Gap Tracker: Harris -8.7% among men, +10% among women (source)

You can see this number, Dems at -8.7%, is extremely close to the -8% line, yet another indication of a close race. Given a reasonable margin of error, that number could easily be less than -8%.

My Presidential Prediction

Given how close things are and how varied poll data has been, I don’t have strong confidence in a winner. Two months ago, I would have said Harris; two weeks ago, I would have said Trump. Today, I’m very, very slightly again leaning to Harris.

Final prediction: Harris 276, Trump 262. I predict Harris wins the Blue Wall states (WI, MI, PA) plus Nevada; Trump wins AZ, GA, and NC. (By the way, you can go to 270towin.com and make your best guess!)

Here’s how I weighed key factors to determine my choices:

Advantages for Harris:

• Abortion, and the possibility of a first female president, are motivating female voters

• I’ve heard numerous accounts that in rural counties in the Midwest, there are far fewer yard signs for Trump than in previous elections, and more for the Democratic ticket

• There are so many famous Republicans voting for Harris; this is unprecedented. I never thought I’d be on the same side of a vote as former VP Dick Cheney, but here we are

• That horrible Republican MSG event likely alienated many Latino voters late in the race as well as moderates who just didn’t like the tone

• Her opponent is a convicted felon

Advantages to Trump:

• Many people blame inflation on Harris/Biden, and think Trump is better for the economy which is almost always the #1 issue

• The conflict in the Middle East may hurt Democrats, particularly in Michigan which has a high Middle Eastern population

• Some cultural and identity issues, such as transgender athletes in women’s sports, motivate some to vote Republican

• Trump has developed a strong following, basically campaigning for 10 years straight

• And of course, Trump maintains a strong lead among male voters who feel the Democrats don’t care about them

I don’t have a crystal ball, but my gut thinks that Harris will have just enough. Anything could happen, but that’s my best prediction.

Other predictions

House: Dems end up +2. Senate: Republicans end up +2. So we would have a split congress.

Just to have a little fun, I predict that Trump will declare victory at 11:07PM PDT Tuesday, even if none of the outlets have called the race. If he eventually loses, he will then claim the election was rigged and contest everything in court. Basically, 2020 all over again. One doesn’t need a crystal ball to see that—this idea has been covered by many news outlets, including this article at the Guardian.

Male Votes, but Not Issues

I am thrilled that so much attention was paid to the male voting bloc this year. In previous elections, there were virtually no ads targeted at men (I saw just one total in 2016 and 2020 combined, from the Lincoln Project). The importance of the male vote came into focus both in the news media and the fact that numerous campaign ads, not all of them effective, were geared toward a male audience. I was invited to join a new group called the Young Men’s Research Initiative (YMRI) which is a Democratic team analyzing one subset of the male vote, young men.

Unfortunately, men’s issues, such as a 5.9-year life expectancy gap, poor educational outcomes, and high rates of “deaths of despair” didn’t make it into the discussion. Many other legitimate male social issues could have been part of the election discourse. Instead, we got a lot of what I call “Manwashing”—Gov. Tim Walz hunting pheasants, Hulk Hogan ripping off a t-shirt, etc. These are attempts at appearing “masculine” without actually discussing any real issues specific to male well-being.

Thank You, Readers

I would like to thank all of you who have followed along on this blog this year and who have supported me. I’ve received many important articles and a lot of key information from folks around the world! I completed my debut book on a topic that resonated with readers, and I have been fortunate to interact with so many people, some in person, and some virtually, on this important topic of Men and the Democratic Party.

Needless to say, I hope everyone voted, and I wish everyone a happy election night.

I will be continuing my work post-election; obviously, the results may dictate what type of direction that work may take.

One More Opinion - The San Francisco Ballot is Ridiculous

Okay, there is one more thing I have to mention because it’s so ridiculous. San Francisco has adopted run-off voting for most races, including mayor. I’m against run-off voting for several obvious reasons:

1. It’s very complicated, and most people don’t understand it. I attended San Francisco Politics 101, a great event run by a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors (yes, that same board that banned the Happy Meal a while back.) After 20 minutes, most of the room still couldn’t understand it. It’s too confusing. And this was a group of motivated people who showed up at a political event. Imagine casual voters!

2. It takes the voter much more time to think of 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and even more choices than just selecting their first choice. My voter guide in San Francisco is a whopping 296 pages (yes, 296 pages!) and on top of that, I received a whole separate guide on how to properly fill out the multiple run-off races. I don’t have the time, energy, or inclination to learn everything about every candidate. I just want to select the best one and move on.

Okay, so let’s look at the choices for mayor:

This year, you can select up to 10 out of 13 candidates. I’m serious. Here’s what that part of the ballot looked like:

Do you want to know how many possible choices you have? There are 13 candidates, plus you could leave a column blank, so the total possible CORRECT options are:

14*13*12*11*10*9*8*7*6*5 = 3,632,428,800

That’s right, over 3.6 billion options! (And that doesn’t include write-ins; it looks like they left the bottom row open for that!)

And there are infinite ways to screw it up and have your vote not counted.

Now, the old-fashioned way:

Vote for the candidate you like best out of 13 options.

There, I described it in one sentence, and everyone understands it.

So, here’s how voting should be conducted in my opinion:

• If it’s an important race and you want the winner to have over 50%, include that race in the primary, which already exists. Then the top two are on the election day ballot, and one of them will get more than 50%.

• If it’s not an important enough race to get on the primary, then just say whoever gets the most votes, wins.

Simple, right? San Francisco has a way of making things way too complicated.

Okay, happy election day everyone!!

The subtitle of the book is just as important as the title: the Democratic Party needs to do a much better job of understanding men and their issues instead of simply shaming them into voting Democrat.

For non-controversial starters, support them on the issues of men’s health (men die 5.9 years earlier on average), mental health and suicide prevention (men are over 3/4’s of suicides), and education (men are only 40% of college students). The Democratic Party Platform has no supportive issues for men; the word “men” only appears 4 times in the document, whereas “women” appears a total of 82 times. This is one reason why you “need to move ground among men.”

The race appears to be extremely close, and the Democrats may pull out a victory despite not properly addressing men’s social issues. But this isn’t the last election - Democrats need to learn how to better appeal to men in 2026, 2028, and beyond. Therefore, I want to share some thoughts on a better method of communication among male voters.

General Advice: Support, Don’t Shame

I don’t believe the numerous examples of Democrats attempting to shame men into voting blue are effective. Instead, the Democrats should be focusing on why the future under a Harris-Walz White House will be better for men. Make the pitch, and close the deal. Don’t guilt trip.

I’ve seen numerous examples of finger-wagging and calling men who don’t vote for Harris “misogynists.” These types of statements only further alienate men. And I can already see the headlines if Democrats lose — “it was all men’s fault.”

Regardless of the outcome, Democrats first need to look inward. The emergence of Harris as the Democratic nominee could have been an opportunity to support male well-being. Even just the acknowledgment, the mention of legitimate issues that ALL men and boys are facing, not just Black or Latino men, or just young men, could have helped Democrats increase support among male voters. Jack Kammer of Men’s Turn put it well in his recent post titled “No Difference for Men and Boys?”; he suggested candidate VP Harris share some remarks, such as the following, as a way to show the OPPORTUNITY to advocate for male well-being if elected:

“You know the saying that only Nixon could have gone to China as he did in 1972 — when it was still called Red China? Why could only he do that? Because he was well-known to be a staunch anti-communist.

“In the same way, there is no doubt that I understand and care about women’s issues. So I can and I will add new personnel, including men, to my White House Gender Policy Council to help me understand the complexities and nuances of how gender issues are impacting men and boys today.

As we approach Nov. 5, with tens of millions of votes already cast, we are past the time for new initiatives. Harris threw a Hail Mary with her Opportunity Agenda for Black Men, but I don’t believe the timing or the limited scope are consistent with a strong surge. Last-second messaging attempts like Walz’s Twitch stream with AOC are part of campaigning today, but they again can’t replace proper messaging built on a foundation of a Democratic Party Platform that supports the social issues of boys and men.

Missed Opportunities

Multiple opportunities—The State of Union Address, The 2025 Proposed Budget, the 2024 Democratic Party Platform, The DNC, the White House Gender Policy Council, the Democratic Party website, and the debates—all easy chances to at least acknowledge that men and boys have legitimate social needs, and offer a few noncontroversial solutions, were missed. The ball was dropped. And now, at the last second, they are asking, “where are the male votes?”

Threats or Free Speech?

This professor from the University of Kansas took it to another level by suggesting men to don’t vote for Harris should be lined up and shot:

While I advocate for free speech, this is an exception. You cannot advocate for violence against anyone or any group of people, including men. Fortunately, according to a report from Inside High Ed, this professor is no longer employed by the University. The University did not indicate the exact circumstances of the professor’s departure, so we don’t know if he was fired or left voluntarily. Some support the departed professor as a matter of free speech, such as the organization FIRE.

The Many Shades of Green - Election Special

I am grateful to have appeared once again on “The Many Shades of Green,” hosted by Max Margo Rubin, in an election special roundtable. You can listen to the full episode here.

Books Available

To learn more about my ideas for the Democrats to “move ground among men,” order my book How Democrats Can Win Back Men from Amazon, available in either Kindle E-book or paperback format. Get yours today!

“How Democrats Can Win Back Men could be the most important book ever written toward both the Democrats winning in 2024 and reversing the loss of men to the Democratic party in the next decades if campaign leaders implement its advice…”
– Dr. Warren Farrell, author of The Boy Crisis

In his introduction, Justin mentioned the Instragram post by in which he quoted me three times regarding the Democrats and their lack of attention to men’s issues this campaign. I’m honored to have my quotes in TheTinMen’s piece, as he is one of the leading advocates for male well-being in the social media space. The data is overwhelming, and TheTinMen makes a strong case. Here’s the Instagram story from TheTinMen:

I was also invited to speak on KAJ Politics Unfiltered hosted by Khudania Ajay based out of New Delhi, India! The episode is titled, “Why US Men Are Walking Away From Democrats: Mark Sutton Breaks Down The Male Voter Shift”

Some readers have asked for audio only to listen to, so here’s a link to the episode page with all links including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, etc.

Thanks for reading, watching, and listening, and here is a link to my book, How Democrats Can Win Back Men.

Republicans Outspending Dems 10:1 on Young Men in Pennsylvania

I am honored to have been invited to join the Young Men Research Initiative (YMRI) which conducts research on young male voters and how the Democratic Party can better appeal to them. One study showed the discrepancy of spending on ads to young male voters in Pennsylvania with Republicans outspending Dems 10:1— this in a potential tipping point state among a vital demographic.

Below is an appearance of YMRI co-founder Aaron Smith on MSNBC in a segment titled “How Democrats can win over young men.” Aaron provides some key insights, backing it up with data, and a shares compelling perspective not often seen on politically left outlets like MSNBC on the importance of the young male vote. I agree with Aaron when he identifies a major part of the problem as messaging—many young men support many Democratic principles but don’t identify with the party. In my opinion, this is one of the best segments of the year — great work Aaron!

Messaging to Young Men on Male Reproductive Rights

In my book How Democrats Can Win Back Men and in this blog which I launched exactly one year before election day, I have urged Democrats to focus on the legitimate needs of men and boys in their platform and messaging. Several obvious and non-controversial topics that should have been front and center include:

• Men’s Health: men are now dying 5.9 years earlier than women yet there is no Office of Men’s Health despite multiple offices for women’s health

• Male Educational Outcomes: men make up only 40% of college students

• Male Homelessness: the fact that men are the majority of homeless.

A more controversial topic is abortion which falls under the larger heading of reproductive rights. We knew that abortion is a major issue in this year’s campaign, with Democrats supporting women’s reproductive choice on this issue that so directly affects their bodily autonomy — it is indeed one of the major driving forces in female voter turnout. But Democratic campaigns should share with men why it’s important for them, too, while acknowledging that there is such a thing as male reproductive rights.

From page 117 of my book How Democrats Can Win Back Men in a section titled “Pro-choice Arguments for Men,” one of the reasons I provided is:

21 years of child-support obligations. If there is an unplanned pregnancy, and abortion is not an option, a man may be responsible for 21 years of child support obligations. Although a woman would have the option to give the child up for adoption, a man has no such option. While there has been discussion of what is known as legal paternal surrender or a paper abortion for men, this is not likely to be a reality in the US in the near future.

While the consequences of an abortion ban for women have been widely discussed, I haven’t heard this argument toward men made by Harris or Walz (if you know of them saying something along these lines, please send me the link!)

Author Emma Johnson penned a compelling article for Newsweek titled “Give Men Reproductive Rights, Too.” Johnson wrote, “One problem is that we have refused to embrace our biggest ally group: men, who hold similar views on abortion rights as women, and also benefit when they have agency over their parenthood.” And recently, a meme posted across social media platforms took a lighter approach to the issue:

People largely vote in their self-interest. Focusing on the negative consequences for young men of a national abortion ban is a very strong argument because it focuses on their future and their potential obligations. I don’t know if this meme was generated by someone within the Democratic establishment or some random person on the internet (the photo is a common one), but I believe it’s an effective message for young men. Incidentally, the concept of male choice in the case of an unplanned pregnancy—legal paternal surrender, aka a “paper abortion”—is largely absent from the major media radar, Johnson’s excellent article being one exception.

Abortion is a sensitive topic and should be addressed with the seriousness it deserves. Adding humor can be tricky. But sometimes a meme is worth a thousand words.

Upcoming Interviews and My Free Speech TV Network ID Spot

I am thrilled that my book and ideas are gaining traction, and I will be conducting a number of interviews in the coming weeks, both before and after the election. International interviews range from India to the UK, and I will be sharing all of them in future posts and on my Media Page which is a repository for my media appearances.

And just for fun, here is a recent very short video of Network ID Spot I was invited to record for Free Speech TV, an independent national network that includes original programming such as The Thom Hartmann Show and The Stephanie Miller Show.

Books Still Available

There is still time to order my book How Democrats Can Win Back Men from Amazon ahead of the election, and it’s available in either Kindle E-book or paperback format. Get yours today!

• Politico: Walz to launch media blitz to woo male voters (and here is Walz’s interview with Michael Strahan on GMA on Oct. 11, 2024)

• USA Today: Obama calls out Black men for hesitance with Harris: 'You're thinking about sitting out?' (Interestingly, President Obama is facing some criticism for his remarks)

• Purdue Exponent: Wanted: male voters for Harris in tough election battle with Trump

Just like corporations can be accused of engaging in Greenwashing — trying to look environmentally sustainable while not meaningfully changing their environmental footprint — the Democrat Party is often guilty of what I call Manwashing. In other words, they are trying to appeal to men on a superficial level without properly addressing any of the specific issues men are facing or offering policies to help them. Or in cases when policies will help men, which many of them do, they don’t choose the frame them that way, so they lose out on potential messaging wins.

Just like Greenwashing, Manwashing is actually a step in the right direction, believe it or not. Because now, the Democrats are openly acknowledging the importance of the male vote, something they have been hesitant to do. That opens the door for more discussion of male well-being and hopefully some more policies in the future. But now, this close to the election, candidates are focused on simpler messaging, not substantive policy changes.

The worst historical example of Manwashing, in my opinion, was the disastrous 1988 photo op of Gov. Dukakis in a tank. It didn’t go over well, and Dukakis lost. See this 538 Documentary called Backfire about the political failure of the photo op.

In 2004, Democratic Candidate John Kerry shared a photo wearing an orange hunting vest. He also lost. I couldn’t help but notice the similarities of the photo Gov. Walz shared on his Facebook page wearing a similar orange vest. While Walz’s photo likely wasn’t a staged photo op, the concept is the same: a masculine photo is not that some as male-supportive policies such as an Office of Men’s Health, or creation of MENTO (job training for Men Entering Non-Traditional Occupations, a balance for WANTO). Something, anything, even just an acknowledgment that men and boys are having legitimate issues.

This year, Democrats have showcased VP candidate Walz as a great dad, military veteran, hunter, and football coach, all masculine roles. He is all of those, and that’s great. But masculinity is not a substitute for substantive policy, such as the creation of an Office of Men’s Health as was suggested by the late Rep. Payne of New Jersey who sadly and ironically died last spring at the age of 65, never seeing his bill AB 4182 come to fruition.

It’s true that image is important. Voters are more likely to vote for someone they relate to, so I understand the male-focused media blitz to make the candidates relatable. But it’s important to keep in mind that overly masculine imaging may not be the right tack. Pres. Bill Clinton appeared on The Arsenio Hall Show playing saxophone; Barack Obama, a community organizer, didn’t pose with guns. Somehow, they connected better with voters, and both of them won among men, not just women, when first elected, according to leading exit polls. And most importantly, they both won the presidency twice.

Below is a video of Harris’s appearance on All The Smoke hosted by former NBA players Stephen Jackson and Harrison Barnes. I’m encouraged and appreciative that Harris and the hosts discussed the issue of mental health and how it can affect Black men, and young Black men in particular (23:45). This is an important issue — and the type of substantive discussion of men’s issues that needs to happen more often and more broadly in Democratic circles.

However, this has been the exception rather than the rule.

Male Social Issues

I outline many more issues faced by men and boys in my book, particularly Chapter 3, and have written about many of them here. For instance, men’s life expectancy is now 5.9 years less than women’s but the current administration has neglected to even mention men’s health. Boys and men are falling behind in education; only 40% of current college students are male. It is men who are significantly more likely to die of overdose, suicide, or murder, be homeless, or be incarcerated. But these gender inequities are never mentioned by Democratic leadership, and instead are swept under the rug which does a disservice to all constituents.

Missed Opportunities

As I have outlined in previous posts, the 2024 State of the Union, the 2025 Proposed Budget, the White House Gender Policy Council, and the 2024 Democratic Party Platform do not mention men’s and boys’ issues at all. Instead, they ignore the obvious, well-known, and well-studied challenges of boys and men, and Democrats seem to hope that male voters (and the women who care about them) will be content with other issues. It’s true, of course, that economic issues are important to everyone, including men. We’re all worried about inflation and long-term fiscal stability, global issues like the Middle East, Ukraine, and the environment. But while rightfully supporting women and girls and vital issues such as abortion and equal pay for equal work, Democrats have intentionally and strategically avoided any mention of issues specifically faced by the other half of the population. And that is a mistake.

Though I’m not religious, I like the saying our high school band director used to say to us: “You can’t be a devil all week and an angel on Sunday.” Similarly, you can’t ignore men for the entire election season, and then ask for their votes at the last minute.

Will the Democrats win regardless in 2024?

Many factors decide an election, and Dems could win despite some flaws in their approach to male social issues. (In fact, Michael Moore just predicted it.) There has been a gender gap in presidential voting since 1980 with men more likely to vote Republican which is the strategic reason Dems should better court men. Right now, the presidential race is about as tight as it could be. However, it’s noteworthy that Harris is significantly behind where Biden was at this time in 2020, and he didn’t win by a lot.

I’m continually astonished that the Democratic Party fails to properly court the male voting bloc which I believe could get them a few more percentage points at the ballot box and greatly improve their odds of winning. Harris has been doing the right thing by appearing on some non-traditional shows like All the Smoke and The Howard Stern Show — she needs to reach out as much as possible between now and Nov. 5.

Whether or not the Democrats win the White House and Congress, and eventually wrest back control of the Supreme Court, it is essential to support boys and men because it’s better policy that will result in better social outcomes for all. The well-being of boys and men isn’t a partisan issue.

Democrats could pull off a White House victory, but we will be weaker for not having a more united country. Or, in a worse scenario for Democrats, Republicans could win the White House and Congress, supported by a majority of the male vote, and make a number of changes unpopular with Democrats.

Media Updates

More updates to the media page:

• I’m thrilled that my book How Democrats Can Win Back Men has been recommended by an article on The Good Men Project! “Why Many Will Vote for Donald Trump in 2024 and What We Must Do to Protect Democracy” by Jed Diamond, Ph.D. Jed was one of the few who predicted Trump’s win in 2016.

• I posted my second appearance on Many Shades of Green with Maxine Margo Rubin: “Men, Mustaches, Climate Change Makers and the 2024 Election with Mark W. Sutton”

• I’ve posted my talk at the Belvedere Tiburon Library.

• I added a link to International Falsely Accused Day for which I spoke at the Rose Garden at the California State Capitol in Sacramento.

• Coming soon: my podcast interview on Netroots Radio.

Positive Messages for Boys

Looking for some swag or gifts with some boy-positive messaging? Check out the goods including mugs, shirts, hats, and more for parents and kids at the Boys Are Great Shop: boysaregreat.shop

Book

If you are enjoying this content, please consider purchasing my book How Democrats Can Win Back Men, the updated version of which is available both in paperback and Ebook for Kindle on Amazon. And if you have, thank you, and please consider writing a review!

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• The publication Joop in The Netherlands published a piece on my book by Eisso Post (Google translate will be your friend here): De Democratische Vervreemding: Mannen en de Amerikaanse verkiezingen (The Democratic Alienation: Men and the American Elections)

• Jed Diamond at MenAlive.com wrote a piece featuring quotes from my book titled “Why Many Will Vote For Donald Trump in 2024 and What We Must Do to Protect Democracy”

• I’ve uploaded my book talk from Manny’s and my recorded interviews on “Politics Done Right,” “Diamond Programs,” and “The Listening Tube with Bob Woodley.”

• I’ll be adding my talk from the Belvedere Tiburon Library and another appearance on “The Many Shades of Green” with Max Margo Rubin

• I posted a link to an article of mine analyzing gender issues in both the Republican and Democratic Party Platforms

And speaking of media…

Ad Campaign Focused on Male Voters: “It’s Time to Be a Man, and Vote for a Woman”

I’ve been waiting to see if the Harris/Walz campaign would begin specifically reaching out to men. Just as in 2020, it is The Lincoln Project, not the Democratic Party itself, that has launched an ad targeted at men. (In fairness, the Biden/Harris campaign had one spot earlier in 2024 that aired in Spanish appealing to Latino men.) This week’s ad, titled “Choose Change,” features the velvety voice of veteran actor Sam Elliot and launched on Sept. 23. Thanks to Max Margo Rubin for spotting it and sharing it with me. Here it is:

I’m encouraged to see the political left’s focus on male voters. It’s urgent! In general, I like the video, but here are my reactions. First, note the title “Choose Change” — positioning Harris as the candidate of change. But isn’t Harris in the current administration? I understand going forward, not backward, but is it really “change” if she is already VP? Are things going great, so keep it rolling? Or are things bad, so we need change? I’m a little confused on the messaging.

Second, I thought it didn’t need the couple of swear words used. While it’s clear that emotions run strong this election, the F-bomb doesn’t sound tough or masculine here. They could have gone without it.

However, at the ending it says, “It’s time to be a man, and vote for a woman.” Indeed, we’ve never had a female president, but voting for one this year could help break the ultimate glass ceiling. [Edit: this sentence was just one line in the commercial, and has been criticized by many for being somewhat talking down to men. I understand that sentiment, and upon further review, while I’m glad again that the male voting bloc is being mentioned at all, I think this wording was not as effective as it could have been.]

Better than a one-minute ad, however, would have been if the administration had focused on some non-controversial male-supportive issues in the State of the Union, 2025 Proposed Budget, or 2024 Democratic Party Platform. But instead, they chose not to. They could have brought up policies to support male health, educational outcomes, and so on, but didn’t. So while I appreciate seeing attention paid to male voters [edit], let’s not pretend this messaging from The Lincoln Project is a replacement for male-supportive policies from the party itself.

White Dudes for Harris Video

Another short video surfaced recently, the White Dudes for Harris launch video for which they are planning to spend $10 million in ad buys. Here it is:

While I am again encouraged that the political left is focusing on male voters, I’m not sure this ad is as effective as one from The Lincoln Project. White men are a huge chunk of voters, about one third of the total voter base, so it makes sense to message to them (or at least to white “dudes”). They are betting it will be effective with a $10 million ad buy. What do you think?

However, I was troubled by a comment that the founder of White Dudes for Harris, Ross Morales Rocketto, made in a recent CNN interview about the ad. He said, “There’s large parts of the left who have gone out of their way to alienate white men over the last couple of years, and that’s understandable in many ways.” Understandable? I thought he was going to say “unfortunate.” The voiceover in the ad seems to acknowledge that white men, as a group, are being blamed for everything, and that’s not right. But then he calls it “understandable in many ways” to alienate them? Hm…I feel like he has a kernel of a good concept, but somehow the execution isn’t landing right. I’m not sure I like the whole movement toward these race- and gender-based voter calls, but that’s what has evolved. Whatever your opinion of White Dudes for Harris and the other identity-based groups, it’s an interesting development this election.

I also attended the most recent White Dudes for Harris training session which had an audience of 600 people during the live session on YouTube, a far cry from the 70,000+ (maybe 130,000?) at the exciting launch event. It was pretty straightforward ground game organizing.

Gender Gap Tracker, with Challenges

I’ll be digging more into polls in the coming weeks, but for now, the bottom line is that the race is extremely close. One challenge in following gender voting trends is that we have to rely on polls, even after the election, and we know how polls are imperfect. There is no exact count of how men and women vote.

Thank you to an attendee of my recent Belvedere Tiburon Library event who shared with me a new Gender Gap Tracker, a poll of polls, from Bill Scher at Washington Monthly. Wow, the gender gap has come of age this year! Currently, according to this methodology, Harris trails men by about 5%, and leads among women by about 11%. This is a narrower gap than revealed by some other polls as some are are shifting the average. While -5% among men is a great number for Harris, and below my target of -8% from the Emerson Poll and other exit polls, it’s not quite that simple as you have to adjust for methodology.

However, it’s again good to see the issue getting more coverage! I’ll dive deeper into this in a future post. Until then, cheers!

Oh, and if you’ve haven’t purchased my book How Democrats Can Win Back Men, the updated version of which is available both in paperback and Ebook for Kindle on Amazon, please consider ordering it. And if you have, thank you, and please consider writing a review!

Click here to buy the book on Amazon.

I’m surprised and honestly excited that male voters, especially young men, are getting more attention this year than in any election I can recall. It’s an opportunity (I use that word a lot) for the Democrats to broaden their base if they choose to focus on it. The shift of young male voters to the political right, which I discuss in my book How Democrats Can Win Back Men, is something the Democrats need to work on in order to increase their chances in presidential and swing state/district voting over the next couple of decades.

Imagine two future scenarios — one in which Democrats better appeal to men, and therefore increased odds dramatically of winning not only this year but over the next two decades. Now imagine the opposite — the continued ignoring of men in Democratic messaging, increased support among men for Republicans, and a challenging couple of decades mired by losses at worst or slight/minor victories at best. Which would be a better future for the Democratic Party? Let’s look at these two types of messaging and consider which one pushes Democrats in a better direction.

A Good Take - Men in Red States Have Worse Outcomes

I came across a couple of interesting takes this week. First, the good. From California-based journalist Max Taves, an article on DCReport.org titled, “Why Men Need To Rethink Their Budding Bromance With the GOP,” in which the author advocates for men to ditch the Republican Party and Trump, not because they owe to someone else or out of some duty to others, but it will be better for them. Taves writes:

The problems men face aren’t spread evenly across American political geography. Men who live in states where Republicans reign suffer more. And the dismal differences between red and blue states are measurable, significant and not coincidental.

Bingo! And Taves backs up his thesis with a number of important facts about male social outcomes, such as longevity, cancer deaths, etc., and how they are worse in red states due to Republican policies. This is exactly the type of information the Democrats should highlight among the many important messages going out, which also include of course support for abortion rights, better economic policies, and warnings about Project 2025. This type of inclusive messaging toward men, and getting male influencers involved, is vital to the future of the Democratic Party. The DNC should hire him immediately in my opinion.

Missing the Mark - Young Men Are “Stupid”

I also saw an article that struck me as the wrong type of messaging. A piece in Slate.com was titled “The Downside of Trump’s Popularity With Young Men Is That Young Men, Who Are Stupid, Might Forget to Vote.” I understand that in our clickbait media ecosystem, sometimes you need to write a headline that grabs attention, so I guess they got me. But when you want to piss people off, calling them “stupid” is a great way to do it. This reminds me of the “deplorables” comment from Hillary Clinton in 2016 which to this day is used against her. Calling young men “stupid” is just plain offensive, and it is exactly the type of thing the right uses to tell young men that the left hates them. If you’re a young man, why would you vote for people who call you stupid?

And what’s worse, the message of the article seems be that it’s no big deal: don’t worry about the young men because maybe they won’t vote anyway — the opposite of what I suggest. The Democrats need to be worried about their standing in all demographics, what I call the All-Demographic Strategy.

My Talk at the Tiburon Belvedere Library

For those in the San Francisco Bay Area, please come to the Belvedere Tiburon Library Tuesday, Sept. 17 at 6pm. I was excited to be invited by the Program Director Milos Petrovic to discuss my book and topics related to the upcoming election. The talk is free, registration is appreciated but not required: https://www.beltiblibrary.org/event?id=11792496

A New Video - Book Overview

Thanks to Jack Kammer for video editing!

I loved speaking with Egberto, and I appreciate that he genuinely got to the core of my message. In his review of the book on his Subtack blog, he wrote:

Identity and demographics play a crucial role in shaping electoral outcomes, Mark W. Sutton’s message comes as both a strategic blueprint and a moral imperative. His book, How Democrats Can Win Back Men, is a call to action for the Democratic Party to address an alarming trend: the consistent loss of male voters over the past five decades. This trend, Sutton argues, is not just a matter of political strategy but also a reflection of broader societal issues that must be addressed if the party is to fulfill its mission of inclusivity and equity.

Here’s the interview recorded in July at Netroots Nation 2024, way back when Biden was still the candidate. Remember those days? Feels like a long time ago. However, as Egberto noted, my thesis is not just focused on 2024, but the coming decades, so the main points are all still relevant and will be for years to come.

Upcoming Events

Sacramento: I was invited to speak at the California State Capitol Rose Garden in Sacramento as part of the nonpartisan rally for International Falsely Accused Day on September 9. The event will take place from 11:45am until 3:00pm. I will be delivering my remarks as part of a program that will include those who have been victims of false accusations and others who are advocates for better awareness and policy on this challenging topic that affects not just the falsely accused themselves, but that person’s family and friends. According to the The National Registry of Exonerations at the University of Michigan, 91% of the thousands who have been officially cleared of crimes for which they were imprisoned were men and disproportionately men of color.

Marin County: I’ve also been invited to present my book How Democrats Can Win Back Men at the Belvedere Tiburon Library as part of their author speaker series. The event is free and open to the public, and will take place on Tuesday, September 17 from 6:00-7:30pm. Please share with anyone in Marin County or the Bay Area who may wish to attend.

Harris Momentum Peaked?

The latest polls from The New York Times/Siena College poll and the CNN Poll of Polls show some softening numbers for Harris, and at this point, the 2024 Presidential race still looks tight. Essentially, the race is tied within the margin of error, but looking at the polls can show us some insights.

With that in mind, here are the benchmarks that I look at:

1. Popular vote. Based on 2016 and 2020 numbers, Harris will likely need to win the popular vote by at least 3.5%, ideally more, to win the electoral college. I consider a 2.5-3.5% margin as a dead heat and a 4.0% margin as a very slight Democratic lead. In the poll of likely voters, Trump polled ahead of Harris in the NYT/Siena poll released Sept. 8 by 49-48% with a margin of error of about 3%. That would mean, according to this poll, the best Harris would be doing among these voters is +2% which is about where Hillary ended up in her loss in 2016 (+2.1%). However, in the CNN Poll of Polls, Harris still leads by 2%. But as I point out, she likely needs to win by at least 3.5% or so (Biden won by 4.5%). So, within the margin of error, she could have a theoretical lead of over 3.5%, but she is on the wrong side of the margin of error. In other words, I wouldn’t say by any stretch that Harris is “ahead” right now, but it’s very close.

2. Gender Gap. I have shown that in every election in the period since 1972 the Democrats have never won when they have done worse than -8% among men. This updated data point is my favorite little juicy bit of data each time new numbers are released. The current polling results: Harris is -17% among men (39% to 56%), and +11% among women (53% to 42%).

   

   I’m calling this data point “Sutton’s Key” as I believe it is a key to the election for Democrats. Right now, even given the allowance for a margin of error, that number is not looking good for Harris and Democrats. This should be a “hair on fire” moment for the Democrats. Better outreach among men is needed.

3. Swing States. The seven swing states are a major focus of both campaigns right now, and all of these states are polling very close, more or less within the margin of error. Although the popular vote and gender gap are important indicators, the electoral results in these states (plus Nebraska’s 2nd District) will officially tell the final story. A little over 8 weeks ahead of election day, it’s very, very close in these states.

Lichtman Predicts a Harris Victory

A little good news for Democrats, Prof. Allan Lichtman of 13 Keys Fame has predicted a Harris victory in 2024. Unlike my analysis, which is a retroactive look at the exit polling data, Lichtman claims that his 13 true or false keys predict the winner, which he has done all but one time since he started his predictions in 1984. The one time he was wrong? In 2000, he had predicted Gore. So he is not infallible, though he’s got a pretty good track record. And by the way, Sutton’s Key has been retroactively correct in every election since 1972, including 2000!

Another Historic Debate

This week we get to witness what will likely be yet another historic presidential debate. Grab your popcorn again and buckle your seatbelts!

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Let’s look at the four age ranges polled in the August NYT/Siena in six battleground states as shared by Miller. All four groups of men fall within a fairly narrow range in favor of Trump/Republicans (percentages approximate):

Ages 18-29: +13 for Trump
Ages 30-44: +13 for Trump
Ages 45-64: +19 for Trump
Ages 65 and above: +12 for Trump

It’s the 45-64 age group that falls farthest to the right. Now imagine this: what if Democrats focus more on male issues and knock a few points off of Trump’s lead among men in these all-important swing states? Wouldn’t that be a smart strategy? It could affect the outcome of the election, but I have yet to see or hear it.

During my years of research, I’ve seen hundreds of quotes of men of all ages saying that they don’t believe that the Democratic Party represents them. And I get it. I sometimes feel that the Democratic Party only cares about me in two ways — they want my vote, and they want my money. What about my issues? For the most part, they don’t seem interested.

For instance, when is the last time the Democratic Party brought up the fact that men’s life expectancy has been decreasing compared to women, with the longevity gender gap now at an alarming 5.9 years? I’ve also been arguing this point on my Substack and in my book, and a very similar argument was recently made in the Washington Post by Richard Reeves in his piece, “Men are having a health crisis. Why aren’t we paying attention?” Will Harris bring this up at the debate?

I hope the Democratic Party will shift its strategy and begin actively focusing on men’s issues. That’s why the subtitle of my book is: Why Understanding Male Voters and Their Issues is Vital to Democratic Victory. I don’t believe most Democrats even understand a lot of the issues men and boys are dealing with. So first the Democrats need to understand the issues of men, and then they can address them. It’s both wise political strategy and makes for better policy, as well.

I Wasn’t On CNN, But My Book Title Was

Check out this screenshot from a CNN story on Fareed Zacharia GPS from Sunday, August 11:

No, that’s not me on the right, but it should be! That’s writer Derek Thompson from The Atlantic. I’m not sure if they saw my book or not, but I thought it was interesting that they used my title in this segment which aligned very closely with the views I expressed in my book. Great minds think alike, I guess! You can watch the full segment on Facebook. Thanks to a reader from New York State for finding that!

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More Praise for How Democrats Can Win Back Men!

I was thrilled to receive positive feedback from an author and researcher for whom I have a tremendous amount of respect, Dr. Michael Gurian. Founder of The Gurian Institute and author of numerous books on psychology and education, Dr. Gurian provided the following feedback:

While written for one political party, I believe this book is useful for all readers.  Mark Sutton details many of the issues faced by boys and men across the political and social spectrum.  His book is well written and well researched.  I highly recommend How Democrats Can Win Back Men.

--Michael Gurian, New York Times Bestselling Author of The Wonder of Boys and Saving Our Sons

You can read more from Dr. Gurian at Michael Gurian’s Substack. Thanks Michael!

And finally, my book was mentioned by Sean Kullman, author of the Substack In His Words, in a post called: “Bash-ing Testosterone: The Politics of Ideas and Identity.” Sean covers a lot of the issues of the day from a well-informed perspective — In His Words is an informative and insightful Substack.

Thank you for reading, and if you have had a chance to purchase the book, please feel free to leave a review on Amazon.

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I may be one of the few people who eagerly awaited the release of the 2024 Democratic Party Platform. I was hoping, against all odds, that the document might include at least a few references to some obvious and non-controversial men’s issues. Like, for instance, the fact that men are dying 5.9 years earlier than women. What is more important than life itself? Why not mention that the Democratic Party cares about male health and longevity? Or perhaps the fact that boys are struggling in education. Shouldn’t that be a talking point for Democrats who claim to care for education? Men are now only about 40% of college students. (There are many other men’s issues such as suicide, homelessness, and opioid overdoses; see Chapter 3 of my book How Democrats Can Win Back Men for a deeper dive on challenges boys and men are facing.)

But, it was not to be. Unfortunately, this document is even more neglectful of men than the 2020 and 2016 platforms. The platform appears to have been written with the assumption that Biden would be the Democratic nominee and was not edited to reflect the candidacy of VP Harris. It also follows the familiar pattern that I have noted in Biden’s messaging — his State of the Union Address, proposed budget, and other communications have consistently and completely ignored men, boys, and their legitimate issues.

Unbalanced: Democrats Ignore Men Again in 2024

I like to perform a word search to see how many times gender-specific words are mentioned. Here are the results from the 2024 Democratic Party Platform:

Three instances of the word men are in “men and women” phrases, so removing those, the numbers are:

Women: 79
Men: 1

These numbers are so lopsided that I don’t think we can call this unconscious bias, it’s just plain bias. It’s men’s issues that are being excluded from the platform.

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The one remaining instance of the word “men” is criticizing Trump for hiring disproportionately male judges (p. 46). It’s a valid point, but not an issue that is focused on supporting the challenges that men are facing right now. There are numerous sections on women’s and girls’ issues such as abortion rights which I support 100% (p.48). I’m not suggesting they remove references to women and girls’ issues. However, it would be a stronger document if it were more balanced. Some other issues covered, such as LGBTQI+ issues (p.56), include a subset of men. There are some other strong points on renewable energy and environmental issues. However, there is absolutely nothing for men and boys specifically. That is unfortunate, and it’s both poor policy and strategy.

If you’re going to focus on issues that affect women and girls, it is only fair to focus on those legitimate issues that boys and men face, as well. And when you fail to do so, don’t be surprised when men vote for you at lower rates. It’s not complicated.

During the DNC, I listened to a live WAPO interview with Harris’ campaign manager Jennifer Dillon O’Malley who had also been running Biden’s campaign until he dropped out. She said, all voters should be able to “see themselves in the vision that the vice president is setting out…” (12:30). I found this comment so strange — the Democrats seem to be going literally out of their way to NEVER mention anything about boys and men. Democrats don’t mention men’s issues at all in the party platform, yet, I’m supposed to “see myself in the vision?”

This is what I call the Democratic Disconnect with men, and it was on full display in this interview, at the DNC, and again in the 2024 Democratic Party Platform. I think the convention, overall, was a net positive for Democrats. But it was far from perfect, and the polling by gender shows that.

Democrats Still Trailing Significantly Among Men

I’ve been told by several readers that I was ahead of my time with my writing and research — the gender divide in voting has become a hot topic this year. Last weekend alone, here are two examples:

1. Newsweek recently published an article entitled “Trump vs. Harris Poised To Be Largest Gender Divide in Election History” that included similar ideas as my book How Democrats Can Win Back Men. It notes multiple polls that show a continuation of the large gender voting gap. It refers to the Times/Siena poll from July 22-24 that shows men at -17% among Dems, and women at +14%, a 31% gap. The numbers may have improved somewhat since that poll, but Democrats are likely still trailing significantly among male voters. (Thanks to a reader from Virginia for sending!) Author Martha McHardy quotes Jackson Katz, PhD, who says:

I have long argued that the Dems need to respond to this aggressively and speak directly to men, including young men, and say 'we see you, we hear you and we care about you.'

Given that the gender voting gap may be large, and that Harris is trailing among men to Trump by a whopping 17%, shouldn’t they plan to close that gap by getting more men’s votes by speaking to them directly, while of course continuing to seek support among women? That seems like an obvious strategy that the party, particularly members of the platform committee and planners of the DNC, is apparently unaware of or for some reason unwilling to pursue.

2. Maureen Dowd’s New York Times article on Palantir founder Alex Karp. (Thanks to a reader from Marin for sending this in!) Dowd writes:

Mr. Karp concurred with his friend Mr. Carville on the problem of drawing men to the Democratic Party, saying, “If this is going to be a party complaining about guys and to guys all the time, it’s not going to succeed.”

And later Dowd quotes Karp him again:

The unfortunate fact here is that this election is really going to turn on ‘What percentage of males can the Democrats still get?’

I’m not sure why the fact is “unfortunate,” but it’s nice to know a billionaire genius like Karp sees the importance of the male vote for Democrats. The subtitle of my book is Why Understanding Male Voters and Their Issues is Vital to Democratic Victory. As my analysis of exit polls reveals, since 1972, the modern era, Democrats have never lost an election when they have done equal to or better than -8% among men. And conversely, they have never won when they have lost men by more than 8%. I’m calling this fact Sutton’s Key, as it is a major key to the election.

I’m perplexed as to why the Democratic Party cannot put 2 and 2 together here. I’m not suggesting that there needs to be an exactly even word count in the Party Platform to attract men. In fact, I’m sure most voters don’t even read the platform. However, the document is important as it sets the tone for the party nationally, and some men generally get the sense that Democrats don’t care about them. That attitude was apparent at the convention where again, men’s issues weren’t discussed, at least in any of the speeches I heard.

Men and the DNC

Harris only had one brief mention of men in her discussion of reproductive rights. As I and others have said, men have reproductive rights as well. While of course abortion rights, just one category of reproductive rights, affect women most directly, there are numerous things from IVF to nonconsensual paternity that affect men. In her DNC acceptance speech, regarding “reproductive freedom,” Harris said:

Well, I will tell you, over the past two years, I’ve traveled across our country, and women have told me their stories. Husbands and fathers have shared theirs.

It was good to hear at least one inclusive mention of men by Harris. Walz, of course, also spoke to that while accepting the VP nomination. I wouldn’t be surprised if it was Walz’s own experience that informed that particular line in Harris’s speech.

Walz’s speech also appealed to men in some ways, I believe. For instance, he referred to his time as a football coach and urged Democrats to “leave it [all] on the field.” He appealed to moderate or even conservative men with the line, “Look, I know guns. I'm a veteran. I'm a hunter, and I was a better shot than most Republicans in Congress and I got the trophies to prove it.”

And of course, Walz projects a positive image as a father and husband and had that touching moment where his son Gus shouted, “That’s My Dad!” which I wrote about in my post last week. But that appeared to be a spontaneous moment of joy, a beautiful one, rather than a carefully crafted talking point focused on men.

Other than the lack of attention to men’s and boys’ issues, I was impressed by both Harris and Walz, as well as many of the Democratic speakers. These folks are professional orators, and it showed. Talk about pressure…they all handled it well. I thought Harris hit on a great many of the other important themes in a way that Biden had been unable to. Polling, while still indicating a toss-up, is much better today than it was for Democrats last month.

Of course there are issues like the economy, inflation, jobs, and the Middle East that affect everyone, and men care about these, too. But Democrats still trail significantly among male voters, and the Democrats’ messaging didn’t do anything to address that deficit specifically, which I believe was a mistake.

If you heard some men’s or boys’ issues brought up during the convention not touched on in this post, please let me know in the comments and I’ll update it.

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But one moment that remains memorable was when 17-year-old Gus Walz stood up, tears streaming down his face, pointing to his father and saying the words, “That’s My Dad!” while Gov. Walz stood on the stage delivering his acceptance speech as the Democratic VP nominee.

I love how Skyler Johnson, Chair of Suffolk Young Democrats, wrote about it on X-Twitter:

Couldn’t have said it better myself! In an energetic and mostly positive convention that however lacked focus on men and their issues, this unscripted moment said a lot about family, fatherhood, and connection with people. About the love for and from a neurodivergent son. It was a genuinely beautiful moment and one that has captured the heart of the nation, and mine as well. I’m still tearing up.

While a few on the political right had the audacity to blame the kid for crying about being happy for his Dad (what nonsense!), you could tell that Trump seemed to be jealous and had to immediately chime in about his own son. Having a “who’s the better father” contest was not something I anticipated in this election.

I’m hopeful that this moment between Gus and Tim Walz, beautiful in its own right, will also help shift attitudes among Democrats toward positive feelings toward fatherhood. Support for fatherhood and men’s issues need to be included in the Democratic dialog. And despite this spontaneous moment of joy, they have largely been absent.

One exception was just before Gus’s moment when Gov. Walz spoke about his family’s issues with infertility and the use of medical treatment that aided in the birth of their third child who they then named Hope. Hope responded with a beautiful moment of her own, making a heart shape with her hands.

With an election as close as it sits currently, Democrats need every vote they can get and shouldn’t take men’s votes for granted. Especially in the 7 swing states, every vote will matter. But for this moment, whatever your politics are, we can be grateful.

Most importantly, President Biden stepped down and the candidacy of Democratic nominee Vice President Kamala Harris took root followed by her selection of Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate. This has greatly energized the Democratic base, and there is the possibility of a historic outcome – the first woman and woman of color to occupy the Oval Office.

Additionally, numerous grassroots groups, several of which are comprised of men, have emerged in support of her candidacy. Meanwhile, former President Trump was the victim of an assassination attempt at the hands of yet another disgruntled young man.

As a result of these events, gender issues have taken center stage and made How Democrats Can Win Back Men even more urgent. The underlying facts and point of view of the original version of this book all remain applicable. The strategy of appealing to men is not a short-term strategy that ends on November 5, 2024. Instead, it is a long-term shift in Democratic focus. However, the ideas presented are now cast in a new light in an election with a fresh dynamic which has led to the updated and revised version. As before, keep checking back here to Men and the 2024 Election for updates in the final months of the election.

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