'Beyond MAGA' report explores four different voter groups in 2024 Trump coalition

More in Common’s new report, “Beyond MAGA: A Profile of the Trump Coalition,” examines four voter groups who cast ballots for President Trump in 2024. While these groups share support for Trump, they differ in their motivations and characteristics:

• MAGA Hardliners (29% of Trump voters): fiercely loyal and deeply religious; typically white, older and Christian.
• Anti-Woke Conservatives (21% of Trump voters): deeply frustrated by the perceived influence of progressive culture; typically male, older, educated and higher income.
• Mainline Republicans (30% of Trump voters): middle-of-the-road, more moderate conservatives; typically younger, female, diverse and lower income.
• Reluctant Right (20% of Trump voters): feel disconnected from national politics; typically older and conflicted.

The Democracy Group spoke with More in Common Research Manager Paul Oshinski, who broke down the report’s findings, explored the differences among these groups and shared insights into what motivated Trump voters.

The study found that Trump-supporting groups are more likely to believe that the country is currently in crisis than the U.S. average and blame issues like open borders, crime and homelessness. Why is this perception common among Trump voters?

Paul: I would say the phrase “existential crisis” comes up a lot. A lot of people, especially the MAGA Hardliners, have almost a religious connection to Trump. They’re fiercely loyal and see politics as a moral battle between good and evil. To them, Trump is — I don’t know if “savior” is the correct word — but someone who needs to be elected to win the moral battle that’s happening in America.

When you think about some of the policies, perhaps if you were a Democrat, you would be shocked that people would support bringing the military into cities or extreme deportation practices. What we found in the study is that right now it does feel like a battle of good and evil and an existential threat, which I think is probably why Trump voters support more extreme policies when it comes to things like immigration.

We also asked in our survey, “Who is the best American alive?” and one of the things we saw is that people picked Trump overwhelmingly over almost any other person. In fact, one of the second-highest was no one. I think Trump has this picture in some people’s heads that is pretty unrivaled.

Tell us more about the Reluctant Right.

Paul: It’s a group that’s ambivalent about Trump personally. They don’t regret their vote for him, but they considered him as “the lesser of two evils” or the less bad option.

The Reluctant Right is a group with economic concerns. I think if you’re a voter, maybe you lean slightly conservative and you were concerned about inflation in 2024, and maybe you don’t like how Trump behaves and his demeanor, but at the same time, you have a real economic frustration right now. That’s probably what partially explains the Reluctant Right.

What other findings stood out in the study?

Paul: I think there was a fairly unexpected shift in young people in Trump’s coalition of 2024. One of the things we found in the study was a surprising level of new traditionalism. When you look at young Trump voters, especially those who are men, a lot of their beliefs around gender are more traditional compared to older Trump voters, which is somewhat counterintuitive.

Some of the more reluctant voters probably feel his policies have gone too far, especially on immigration, and were probably never supported by this group in the first place. But these people are not motivated to take action and vote for Democrats tomorrow. I think dispelling that myth is important.