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Here is a social media trend you might not be able to escape - people getting really, really hot and bothered, dare I say thirsty, over newly elected Democratic men. As NPR's Danielle Kurtzleben reports, it is not just a cheeky trend, though. It also says a lot about how Democrats have responded to the Trump era.
DANIELLE KURTZLEBEN, BYLINE: There's a good chance you've seen the videos.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
JESSE BARTON: And I'm looking at you, Rob Sand. I'm looking at you, Jon Ossoff. I'm looking at you, El-Sayed, OK? I am looking. I'm not the only one, and I am very happy about what I see.
KURTZLEBEN: All sorts of people, like fitness coach Jesse Barton, are gushing over the young men Democrats just elected. A lot of the posts are just montages of people like Georgia Senator Jon Ossoff set to sexy pop songs.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "BOW BOW BOW")
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: Back it up.
ZEDDY WILL: Yup.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: Back it up.
UNIDENTIFIED CHILD: RaeSam on the beat.
WILL: (Rapping) Let me see you go bow, bow, bow, bow, bow.
KURTZLEBEN: A parody Tiger Beat magazine cover featuring Democratic men went viral. And then Manouschka Guerrier took it one step further.
MANOUSCHKA GUERRIER: I created the entire Tiger Beat-style personality quiz, complete with a different boy band personas.
KURTZLEBEN: Guerrier is a chef and content creator in Los Angeles, and she says these guys looks are just a bonus.
GUERRIER: They're young, and they're ballsy, and they're smart. And they're not just smart. They're brilliant.
KURTZLEBEN: It all goes beyond posts. The progressive organization Swing Left promoted a candidate lookalike contest in Chicago. Age and masculinity are fueling all this attention, says Christina Wolbrecht, political science professor at Notre Dame University. And the masculinity side of that is in response to MAGA and its elevation of a very specific type of manhood.
CHRISTINA WOLBRECHT: For 10-plus years, Donald Trump has presented one very distinct version of masculinity. It's very much power over. It's very much power through wealth and status.
KURTZLEBEN: This year, manliness took center stage on the Democratic side, and some candidates leaned into it with things like gym videos. Michigan Senator-Elect Abdul El-Sayed, at one point, did a video spoofing "Love Island."
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
ABDUL EL-SAYED: So what's my type? No corporate PAC money, ready to rock for Medicare for all.
KURTZLEBEN: Monica Venzke is a Democratic strategist. She says that after 2024, Democrats had a problem.
MONICA VENZKE: The feeling within the straight, male demographic, if you will, that it just wasn't cool to be a Democrat. It wasn't sexy to be a Democrat. It's not manly to be Democrat. Democrats were - you know, that's like a girly thing to be, is a Democrat.
KURTZLEBEN: That's why she started the Instagram account Boyfriends We Deserve, where she highlights attractive Democrats, mostly men, but a few women, as well. And to be clear, plenty of Democratic women did win this year, including several historic firsts. Georgia's Keisha Lance Bottoms, for example, will be the first Black woman governor. Venzke knows she has to be careful in how she posts about women's looks, unlike when she talks about men, like Montana's incoming Democratic congressman.
VENZKE: Like, when I call Sam Forstag hot - will most likely never, ever hurt him. But I can call someone like Keisha Lance Bottoms hot, and that could hurt her every time. Like, women aren't fundraising off of me because it's probably just not helpful.
KURTZLEBEN: To Venzke, her Boyfriend's We Deserve posts are part of making it clear that the Democratic Party is a big tent that includes young men. But still, something big stands out here. There's a striking contrast between this midterm and the first Trump midterm in 2018. That election after the Women's March, MeToo and the long list of assault and misconduct allegations against President Trump yielded a record-setting wave of Democratic women. Democrats have since then seen Joe Biden defeat Trump and then watched another woman lose to Trump. It's possible, then, that the attention on Democratic men isn't simply lighthearted, but it's part of Democrats' continual conversation about electability. Here's Wolbrecht again.
WOLBRECHT: I hear it from all sorts of people, with all sorts of engagement, that 2016 and 2024 proved that it took old guy, aviator sunglasses Joe Biden to defeat Trump, and we need more of that and not more Kamala Harrises and Hillary Clintons.
KURTZLEBEN: Guerrier disagrees about the future of the party, but she thinks that for a lot of voters, this election was about changing the Democratic Party's story.
GUERRIER: It was just like, these guys came out of nowhere, and it was just like, just so refreshing that, wow, we can get out of this darkness and into something that's hopeful.
KURTZLEBEN: Democrats have struggled to win over men in recent elections. Harris got 43% of men in 2024. This year, the party won 50% of the men's vote.
Danielle Kurtzleben, NPR News. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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