Can better understanding Trump voters’ needs and motivations help ease polarization and advance advocacy work? At the end of 2025, the Alliance network heard from More in Common about their at-the-time-unpublished polling research on the subject.
Beyond MAGA: A Profile of the Trump Coalition has since been released. The landmark study is the most comprehensive segmentation study of 2024 Trump voters to date. Based on over 18,000 interviews, the study identifies four types of Trump voters, each with distinct values and motivations: MAGA Hardliners, Anti-Woke Conservatives, Mainline Republicans, and the Reluctant Right. These groups share common concerns about illegal immigration, progressive overreach, and American decline, but hold distinct identities, competing priorities, and sometimes clashing worldviews.
Understanding these complexities is essential for making sense of American politics today. Advocates had numerous questions what this means for early childhood policy work and the possibilities it presents for building new connections.
The Alliance’s Right for Kids community of practice held a follow-up deep dive into framing messages for the various segments on specific issues. If you’re a policy advocate and would like to know more about that conversation, reach out to Mandy at mableidinger@earlysuccess.org.
Key Take-Aways:
Segmenting people is not about partisanship, it’s about values.
More in Common suggests that two thirds of Americans (67 percent) don’t think of politics as a primary identity. These people are not in the partisan “wings” but rather constitute the “exhausted majority.”
Americans don’t perceive the exhausted majority, and ascribe the views of the “wings” to the entire other party. Research shows people think the other party’s members hold far more extrreme views than they actually do.
Common values are masked by partisanship, polarization, and the high visibility of the “wings” of each side.
It is important to separate Trump from Trump voters.
When it comes to early childhood policy, the “family” lens is a helpful place to start.
While there is tension in gender roles and the nuances of solutions, it is widely agreed that it is currently challenging to raise a family.
Resources:
Beyond MAGA: A Profile of the Trump Coalition, More in Common, 2026
The Four Types of Trump Voters, More in Common, 2026
The Four Types of Trump Supporter, The Atlantic, 2026
The Perception Gap, More in Common, 2019.
Hidden Tribes: A Study of America’s Polarized Landscape, More in Common, 2018