These young voters have been sold on Donald Trump since childhood. Here's how he held their attention

Billy Walker grew up in a family of loyal Bucks County Democrats who strongly supported Democrat Hillary Clinton in 2016. Eight years later, he plans to cast his first presidential ballot for former President Donald Trump.

He's been transfixed by Trump since watching him in television debates during his first run for president.

"He was both funny and charismatic," said Walker, 20, now chair of Temple University College Republicans. " ... He made politics entertaining. It wasn't just like this boring back and forth of discussion. He made it fun and he made it funny. He would always throw in jokes. It was easy to watch for a 12-year-old."

For young Republicans, their coming of age coincided with Trump's ascension, a highly unprecedented time in politics given the extent of his scandals and incendiary rhetoric. Many in this group have been sold on Trump since childhood, and the admiration has only grown.

The Trump campaign understands how crucial the young voter bloc is. It's why the former president, just 10 days before the election, is spending his Saturday in State College, where he can speak directly to Penn State students, underscoring his team's strategy to connect with young voters, particularly young men, who are set to back Trump in November.

Pennsylvania young voter turnout is poised to help shape the outcome of the presidential election and voter registration data shows Republicans are making some inroads with the state's youngest voters, though Democrats still holds a lead among the group.

In the months after the 2012 election, for example, 45% of registered 18-year-olds in Pennsylvania were listed as Democrats, while 30% were Republican. But as of Oct. 21, 38% of registered 18-year-olds in Pennsylvania are Democrats and an equal 38% are Republican. The proportion of 18-year-olds who are unaffiliated has also shrank slightly during that span, according to an Inquirer analysis of voter registration data.

Lourdes Cardamone, president of Temple Democrats, contrasted Harris and Trump's reach with young voters.

"Trump caters to a very narrow, specific group of people, young men, usually white young men, and Harris has been catering to youth from all over," she said.

In an election where every vote matters, these young Trump supporters in Pennsylvania are hoping to tip the scales in their crucial state.

What sealed the deal?

Liam Long, 19, from Altoona, was also captivated by a Trump 2016 debate performance. He specifically remembers being taken with Trump's honesty when he admitted to using tax codes for his own benefit.

"Just the admission of something wrong for gain in an election, that kind of surprised me, and that, honestly, was something that really influenced me when I was younger," said Long who attends Villanova University.

Trump's blunt language and ability to riff out different stories could make him appealing to voters, said Robin Kolodny, author and Temple political science professor, adding in an interview this summer that "he seems decisive" or like someone's "favorite uncle."

Gianni Matteo and his family were Democrats until the 2016 election. Matteo, a self-proclaimed "screen kid" from South Philly, would watch videos of former President Barack Obama, recalling that he was "the coolest guy on the internet back in the day."

But that changed for then 12-year-old Matteo when his family began to view Trump as the candidate focused on the working and middle classes.

Young voters' political sensibilities are always evolving. But just as the 2018 Parkland high school shooting and the 2020 racial justice protests mobilized a group of young people to become involved in progressive politics, growing up during the Trump presidency could have been a formative experience for young voters, said Alberto Medina, who leads the Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning & Engagement (CIRCLE), a national nonpartisan organization.

Matteo, 20, and the cochair of the Pennsylvania Federation of College Republicans, once saw Obama as the "hope and change" candidate, and now he sees Trump in a similar light.

A stark voter gender gap plays out on campus

While Trump courts young voters, there remains a stark gender gap, with Trump finding reliable support among young men, while Harris has found substantial backing from young women.

"Girls won't talk to you if you're a Republican," said Andy Smith, 20, a sociology major at Villanova University who hails from Edgmont.

Smith was exposed to Trump at school, he said, when he and his friends would "bicker" about politics and at the dinner table, where his dad would discuss Trump as a "champion" for small businesses and the middle class. But he said his conservative values have been taboo on campus.

Mia Humphreys, 18, the chief of staff for the Penn State College Republicans and a Trump voter, says she's typically outnumbered as a woman in conservative spaces on campus.

But Humphreys said the GOP can attract more young women voters by changing its messaging on abortion — the top issue for Pennsylvania's women voters — and gender equality.

"We had Charlie Kirk come to Penn State, so obviously that drew a lot of Republicans to that event," Humphreys said. "And like, even then there was still not that many girls ... we all got Trump hats from that event, and I just remember I didn't want to walk home to my dorm with that on because I just was, like, I don't want anybody to really say anything to me."

But when in-person community-building fails, there's a vast conservative, online ecosystem at young voters' fingertips, ranging anywhere from conservative social media pages to podcasts. Both Trump and Harris are making their rounds on various podcasts to court young voters. Trump is scheduled to appear on an upcoming episode of Joe Rogan's podcast.

Conservative-coded media provides a safe environment for young Trump voters whose peers are predominantly liberal, said Brian Rosenwald, a political historian focusing on media shaping popular political culture.

"The social spaces that they found are probably largely on TikTok or other social media platforms, but it's the same basic platform thing of like, 'OK, we're finding a community, we're finding people who agree with us, we're finding people where we can think what we want to think,'" Rosenwald said.

'It's really all surreal'

While some young Trump voters pointed to his combative style as part of what attracted them to the former president, others admitted they've found his inflammatory rhetoric and penchant for misinformation to be a turnoff.

"I feel like he goes on these little tangents where he'll say a bunch of stuff and smear other people," Humphreys said. "And I've kind of always not really loved that about him. And as I've gotten older, I noticed that more, and recognized that more he's very quick to anger."

Smith said that much of Trump's rhetoric — which he compares to "locker room" talk or chatter among "teenage boys" — shouldn't be accepted.

But it ultimately doesn't outweigh their support for Trump's economic, security, or immigration policies.

"At the end of the day, you might be a bad guy, but I trust that, you know, we're going to address the things that need to be addressed," he said.

And for those, like Temple student Walker, who have long followed Trump since his political debut, they've just been waiting for the chance to cast their first ballots for him.

"I never in a million years would have thought he is going to be the first candidate with this cycle," Walker said. "So, it's really all surreal."

Data reporter Saara Ghani contributed to this article.