Some of Donald Trump’s political success in this year’s election can be attributed to the loneliness felt nationwide by young white men who found refuge in his message and policies.

Donald Trump’s message—Make America Great Again—has radicalized young working-class white men who long for the security and dominant status they once had when the “game was rigged in their favor,” said Berkeley political scientist Cecilia Hyunjung Mo.

“Young men are lonelier than ever. Seventy-five percent or so say they are regularly stressed out about the state of the world around them,” said John Della Volpe, director of polling at the Harvard Kennedy School Institute of Politics in an interview with NPR.

This “loneliness” is part of why presidential candidate and elect Donald Trump appealed to 26-year-old Mason Herring.

“I feel like everyone blames everything on straight white men nowadays. It’s not my fault,” said Herring. “Trump, though, I feel like he gets us. And his policies are gonna benefit everyone, not just the minorities.”

Herring is not alone in feeling isolated as a white man in modern America. “According to the White Men’s Leadership Study, a study of white men and DEI, nearly 70% report feeling forgotten,” reported the Worcester Business Journal.

While he couldn’t name specific policies he felt would benefit Americans, Herring said he resonated with Trump’s ideologies that would “unify and make America great again.”

Mason Herring grew up in Newberg, Oregon, and is an electronics technician for the U.S. Navy. Though Oregon is a blue state, Yamhill County—where Herring was raised and still lives—leans to the right; 51.1% of Yamhill County residents voted for Donald Trump, and 45% voted for Kamala Harris. He said his upbringing contributed to his conservative values, and Trump “is honest about his promises” to uphold those values with his presidency, said Herring.

“My favorite holiday growing up was the Fourth of July. I mean, I’ve always been all-American,” said Herring. Though Veteran’s Day was nowhere near second, he was raised to support the U.S.’s troops “through and through,” he said.

“Kamala ran her campaign on the promise to restore women’s rights. But what about the other half of us, huh? What about the issues that affect the rest of us, too, like immigration and the economy? That’s what Trump promised us, so that’s who I voted for,” said Herring.

Another young white male raised in Newberg was raised by a single mother. It was this, Paxton Feenstra said, that made him vote for Harris. “I feel that I’ve had my time to be, like, top of the food chain, and so I do support the other people, like women and members of the LGBT,” he said. “So even though Trump may understand me more as a voter, I chose to not vote in self-interest, but for the other people who haven’t had the amount of privilege I did.”

USA Today said the share of young voters backing Trump was larger among young white men, even though young people as a whole backed Harris.

“When we feel like the group we are in as a whole—whether by race, ethnicity, sexuality, religion and so on—is being faulted for the actions of individuals within our group, we get frustrated,” said psychologist Dr. Dana Iyer. “Often this causes us to resonate with people and ideas that take that pressure off us.”

Dr. Iyer said that this election was a real-world example of that concept; young white men felt that they were being attacked for their amount of privilege, so it caused them to feel comfortable with the president-elect, a loud member of their privileged group with an immense amount of influence. Trump didn’t make them feel like they were to blame.

“I was at home with my dad on Election Day. At the end of the night, when the results came out, we jumped for joy. Literally,” said Mason Herring.