Also: Young Men’s Unemployment and Institutional Investors

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Edited by Brady Africk and Carter Hutchinson

Happy Thursday! In today’s newsletter, we examine Americans’ decreasing confidence in state and local election security, the consequences of unemployment for young men, and the role of institutional investors in the housing market.

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1. Americans’ Fear of Electoral Fraud ([link removed] )

04.02_Stirewalt ([link removed] )

Topline: In 2024, only 44 percent of voters expressed significant confidence that presidential election ballots would be counted accurately, but 76 percent of voters said they were confident their state and local elections were fair and accurate. AEI’s Chris Stirewalt writes ([link removed] ) that the issue of so many Americans believing the national election would be illegitimate was mitigated by the belief that their own votes would be counted fairly. Now that’s changing too.

Confidence Cliff: Americans’ confidence in the security of their local elections has decreased since 2024. A recent poll found that only 66 percent of voters expressed confidence in their local elections, an all-time low in American history. In 2024, Republican voters were the main constituency that believed American elections were no longer secure. Now, increasing numbers of Democrats and Independents are also reporting a lack of confidence in elections.

Case in California: Recent events have amplified this electoral distrust on the local level. In Riverside County, California, for example, Sheriff Chad Bianco seized more than 500,000 ballots from the 2025 California gerrymandering referendum. Stirewalt writes that, with such a large margin, it’s unlikely Sheriff Bianco will find any evidence to overturn the result, but this action underscores locals’ concerns of election fraud.

“The wild, baseless claims of fraud and disenfranchisement have seeped into the electorate and convinced an increasing number of Americans not just that the results of national elections can’t be trusted, but that their own ballots may be at risk.”

—Chris Stirewalt ([link removed] )

More on Election Security
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2. Are Young Men at Work? ([link removed] )

04.02_Wilcox ([link removed] )

Topline: In 1980, only 25 percent of young men were not working full-time, but that number has now increased to 33 percent. This increase has impacts beyond the purely fiscal for many young men, who still view work as a key indicator of success and see their increasing inability to secure employment as a source of despair and demoralization, as AEI’s Brad Wilcox and Maria Baer find ([link removed] ) .

Risks of Unemployment: Cities that suffered from the disappearance of working-class jobs during deindustrialization have higher rates of violent crime, drug use, broken families, and childhood poverty than the national average. Modern men are between two and three times as likely as women to suffer deaths of despair—by alcohol, drug use, or suicide—and these deaths are more likely among unemployed or underemployed men. Young men who lack full-time work also struggle to meet other traditional markers of adult success, like marriage. Fifty-nine percent of young men surveyed in a new report from the Institute of Family Studies are not married and not dating anyone seriously.

Breadwinner Boon: Wilcox and Baer argue that men are more likely to flourish when they see themselves as providers or reliable breadwinners. Men who see themselves as providers thrive, and so do the women around them. Wives are happier when they view their husbands as providers. Seventy-two percent of young men say it is important to provide for others, and 81 percent of young men say it is important to be financially independent from their parents.

“America needs working men, and America’s men need and want to work. The government should do everything it can to foster a healthy marketplace for them—even when that means getting out of the way.”

—Brad Wilcox ([link removed] ) and Maria Baer

More on Young Men
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3. How Institutional Investors Impact Housing ([link removed] )

04.02_PintoPeter ([link removed] )

Topline: Large institutional investors only own about 0.65 percent of the nation’s single-family homes. Despite this, the new 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act has a section that imposes a complex set of limits on these institutional investors that, if enacted, will reduce the supply of new homes, discourage the conversion of renters to homeowners, and impose burdens on low and middle-income renter households, explain ([link removed] ) AEI's Edward J. Pinto and Tobias Peter.

Institutional Investors in Practice: Though institutional investors have been portrayed as a major force driving home prices and preventing homeownership, their presence is actually localized, cyclical, and not a primary driver of price growth. Institutional investors contribute positively by adding supply, rehabilitating distressed properties, and serving families who are not positioned for homeownership.

Legislative Solutions: Pinto and Peter provide recommendations to improve the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act while still preserving its policy goals. They suggest exemptions for key supply channels like new construction, acquisition and renovation of distressed homes, disability and senior housing, and investor-to-investor sales. They also suggest changes to encourage homeownership, like eliminating the seven-year forced sale requirement, incentivizing transitions to ownership without mandates, and limiting administrative discretion to the treasury secretary.

“The biggest risks associated with current proposals to restrict such investments are numerous, with several likely unintended consequences.”

—Edward J. Pinto ([link removed] ) and Tobias Peter ([link removed] )

More on Housing
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Dive into More Data

04.02_Kupiec ([link removed] )

Change in Bank Interest Rates on Credit Card Plans ([link removed] )

More on Credit Cards
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04.02_CTP ([link removed] )

Iranian Missiles and Drones Launched at the United Arab Emirates ([link removed] )

More on Iran
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Special thanks to Hannah Bowen, Drew Kirkpatrick, and Alex Stamell.

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