🗳 🇺🇸 📊 OK Boomer: Neocons Used Landline Phones To Poll Young MAGA Voters

The research, conducted by the Ronald Reagan Institute, found that a majority of self-identified MAGA voters under 30 largely agree with an interventionist approach to American foreign policy. The polling used a mix of live-cellular and landline phones, along with an oversample of younger MAGA voters.

Yes, landlines — in a poll about Gen Z.

The study also relies on “self-identified MAGA voters” without clearly defining what that label means, how respondents understood it, or whether it captures the broader universe of young voters who helped power Republicans to victory in 2024.

Further, while the study boasts about dismantling the narrative that young conservatives are more isolationist, it only interviewed 331 “MAGA Republicans under 30.”

The research stands in stark contrast to other polling conducted on this age group regarding foreign policy. A Pew Research poll from April of this year found that 57% of Republicans between the ages of 18 and 49 hold unfavorable views of Israel, in stark contrast to the Reagan Institute poll, which found that 63% of MAGA voters under 30 agreed with the notion that the security of Israel matters to the United States’ security and prosperity.

“A New York Times poll, which is one of the best in the industry, found that among Republicans, those 18 to 44, who are Gen Z and Millennials, found overwhelming disapproval for the war in Iran, and generally want the party’s future on foreign policy to change. The young Republicans want a change. That is why they voted for Trump in the first place.” Ryan Girdusky, a conservative political consultant, told the Caller in response to the Reagan Institute findings.

Questionable methodology aside, Thiessen’s Washington Post column and the Reagan Institute’s survey press release conveniently excluded data points from the survey that did not support their message of an up-and-coming group of interventionist conservatives.

The study asked respondents whether they agreed with the sentiment, “The U.S. is better served by withdrawing from international affairs and focusing more attention on problems here at home.” Seventy-two percent of “MAGA” respondents under 30 agreed with the statement, compared to 64 percent of all MAGA voters.

MAGA respondents under 30 were also 17 points less likely than overall MAGA respondents to say that Israel’s security matters to U.S. security and prosperity — 63 percent compared to 80 percent — and 14 points less likely to say that Iran obtaining a nuclear weapon matters to U.S. security and prosperity — 75 percent compared to 89 percent.

Overall, voters under 30 were the least likely group to care about Iran obtaining a nuclear weapon, U.S. involvement in NATO, or total regime change in Iran, and were the most likely group to support a negotiated settlement with Iran.

Taken together, the numbers tell a different story than the one highlighted by Thiessen and the Reagan Institute. Even within a poll framed around self-identified MAGA voters — and conducted using a methodology that raises serious questions about its ability to reach young conservatives — respondents under 30 were consistently less hawkish than MAGA voters overall.

That does not prove young conservatives are monolithic isolationists. But it does undercut the claim that Gen Z MAGA voters are rushing to inherit the neoconservative foreign policy consensus.

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