Seattle-area political divide among young voters grows along gender lines
SEATTLE – In recent years, the political divide between young women and young men has widened significantly. National polling shows young women are increasingly leaning left, while young men are shifting to the right. This split is far more pronounced among young voters today than in previous generations.
Could this trend be happening even in an overwhelmingly liberal region like the Seattle area?
New survey data on political party affiliation from market-research giant Nielsen shows that it is.
From 2020 to 2025, the data shows young women in the Seattle area have grown increasingly Democratic, and the share who identify as Republican has plummeted. Among young men, the reverse is true, although the shift isn’t quite as dramatic.
Nielsen data released in 2020, based on surveys conducted in the Seattle market area from February 2019 to February 2020, shows little difference in the political party affiliation between young women and young men.
Young women were just slightly more Democratic than young men in the Seattle area at that time. About 44% of women 18 to 34 identified as Democrats, or leaned Democratic, compared with 42% of men in the same age group.
In 2020, there was also a negligible gender gap between the share of young voters who were Republican, or leaned Republican in the Seattle area. For young women, it was 22.5%, compared with 21% of young men. It’s notable that just five years ago, the share of Republican or Republican-leaning young women was slightly higher than the share of such young men.
About 34% of young women were independent, identified with some other party, or had no political affiliation, compared with 37% of young men.
The new Nielsen release, which is based on surveys conducted between February 2024 and February 2025, paints a different picture of young voters in Seattle.
Among Seattle-area women age 18 to 34, the share who identified as Democrats, or leaned Democratic, soared to a clear majority at 56% – that’s a remarkable 12 percentage-point increase in just five years. But for young men, there was a slight dip to 41%.
That’s a 15 percentage-point gap between young women and young men, up from a 2 percentage-point gap in 2020.
The share of young women in the Seattle area who identified as Republican, or leaned Republican, fell so far in the new surveys – to just 13% – that Nielsen flagged the number for having a relatively low response rate. But among young men, there was a small increase to 23%.
In other words, young Seattle-area men are nearly twice as likely to be Republican or Republican-leaning as young Seattle-area women.
Why has the political gender gap widened so much among young people? A variety of possible explanations has been put forward. For example, some young men have rejected what they see as anti-male rhetoric in progressive spaces, where masculinity is often labeled as toxic. Another factor may be college enrollment. Young women are more likely to attend college than young men, and many colleges tend to be left-leaning environments.
Around 31% of young women in this area were independent, identified with another political party, or had no political affiliation. For young men, it was 36%.
The surveys were conducted by Nielsen across the Seattle market area, which covers most of the Puget Sound region. For both the new release and the 2020 release, more than 3,900 adults were surveyed across the region.
Among Seattle-area residents age 35 and older, the changes in political party affiliation between 2020 and 2025 were far less pronounced.
For example, for women 35 and older in this area, the share who identified as Democrats, or leaned Democratic, only increased slightly, from 51% in 2020 to 52% in 2025. For local men age 35 and older, the share went from 44% to 45%.
The share of Seattle-area women 35 and older who identified as Republican, or leaned Republican, dropped from 27% in 2020 to 23% in 2025. It also fell for local men in this age group, from 34% to 31%.