2 September 2026 - 12:30pm
Remember Paul Ryan’s photoshoot at the gym all those years ago? It’s a memory most Americans, including Ryan himself, would probably prefer to forget. The backwards red cap, wired earphones, and Baywatch-style bicep curls were a quaint reminder of just how uncool the pre-Trump GOP was.
But while the arc of lifting may be long, it bends towards justice. In recent years, MAGA conservatives have taken to the gym with gusto. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. performs hamstring curls in his jeans, Pete Hegseth bench-presses with troops, and Marjorie Taylor Greene is keeping fit in MAGA exile by doing pull-ups. Recently, however, Democrats have been getting in on the act too. Days before his primary election victory in Michigan, Abdul El-Sayed gave a tour of his home gym and gloated to a reporter about his Whoop recovery score. His gym buddy, Hasan Piker, is also a regular gymgoer. And there are dozens of other Democratic candidates in this year’s midterms posting their workout routines too. The latest example is Beau Bayh IV, a 30-year-old Indianan running for secretary of state, who called politicians “weak” while grinding through a set.
Why, then, are Democrats suddenly trying to get buff? One reason is that it offers an easy way for candidates to emphasise their youth and vitality. The shadow of Joe Biden still looms large over the party, as does the stench of gerontocracy that permeates Washington. With 13 members of Congress over the age of 80 running for re-election this year, and Congress’s approval nearing record lows, it’s no wonder why young candidates are trying to differentiate themselves.
Democrats have also come to a belated realisation: men are a fairly important constituency for winning elections. Trump won male voters by 12 percentage points in the 2024 election, and the gender gap in this year’s midterms could be even wider. In response, the party has launched a nationwide search for the “Democratic manly man” — someone who goes gymmin’, huntin’ and fishin’, and might even step foot into the dangerous world of podcasts.
The trouble is that these cosmetic changes will do little to alter the party’s longstanding problem with men. For years, the progressive movement treated traditional masculinity with suspicion, pushing misguided narratives about “toxic” or “fragile” masculinity. This created a hostile environment for men, who were left with two choices: leave the party or, in the words of former Democratic operative Evan Barker, “self-flagellate”. “There was a lot of hostility towards men in progressive spaces,” said Barker. “The men would self-flagellate because they needed to keep their jobs.”
Despite sinking $20 million into a study of young men last year (what could be more Democratic than that?), the party has failed to land on a winning message. Nationally, women earn substantially more college degrees than men, with girls more likely to graduate high school on time than boys. Male suicides drastically outnumber female suicides. At the same time, far more men in their prime working years are neither working nor looking for employment compared with the previous century. These issues rarely get so much as a mention in the Democratic platform, let alone from the party’s candidates.
Some Democratic governors have at least recognised the problem. But if Democrats really want to win men back, they will have to convince them that the party actually understands the problems they face — and that it wants to do something about them. As things stand, this is Paul Ryan’s world now, and we’re just living in it.
