Since the early attempts to explain the rise of the German Nazi party and the Italian fascists, a plethora of research has investigated the underlying factors and mechanisms favoring the appeal of (right-wing) populism. These studies have focused on demographic characteristics, personality traits and values associated with ideological proximity to populism, a political opportunity structure favoring populism, and models of social identity and group competition. We propose and test a novel mechanism—the FA-BA (Frustration Anxiety-Blame Anger) model—that matches the core characteristics of populism with directly associated emotions experienced by voters. Confirming the predictions of the FA-BA model, populist voters experience higher levels of targeted frustration and anxiety, anger, and blame attribution but do not differ from other voters with regard to overall life satisfaction and general positive or negative affect. Furthermore, frustration and anxiety are transformed into anger via blame attribution. As predicted, frustration and anxiety do not increase the likelihood that a voter will cast a populist vote. Conversely, anger, enthusiasm, and blame attribution are strongly associated with casting a populist vote—with the path from blame attribution via enthusiasm emerging as central mechanism explaining populist votes. Overall, the findings support the FA-BA model, have important implications for understanding the strategies of the populist right and the related emotional mechanisms underlying voters’ choices, and point to potential dangers of populist strategies.