Polls have shown that there’s a wide gap between how women and men planned to vote in the 2024 presidential election. Is it possible that the race will leave a surge of breakups in its wake?
“I wasn’t going to vote at all until my girlfriend was blowing up my phone telling me to go vote and if I didn’t she was going to break up with me,” said a Harris voter interviewed Election Day by CNN, per a clip shared on X by journalist Aaron Rupar.
In its last poll before the election, NBC News found that Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic candidate had a 16-point lead with women. Meanwhile, the GOP candidate, former President Donald Trump, had an 18-point lead with men. That’s a net 34-point gap between the genders.
This outpaces the last time a woman was a candidate for president – Hilary Clinton in 2016. That year, there was a “sizable 11 percentage-point gender gap,” said the Center for the American Woman and Politics. Approximately 42% of women and 53% of men voted for Trump during that election.
Earlier this year, Gallup polling reported on an expansion of young American women who identify as politically left-leaning in recent years. From 2001 to 2007, just 28% of women aged 18 to 29 identified as liberal.
“From 2017-2024, an average of 40% of young women identified as liberal, 15 points higher than for young men,” said Gallup. “This period coincides with the presidencies of Donald Trump and Joe Biden, as well as a record increase in women – mostly Democratic – elected to Congress, governorships and state legislatures.”
During that time, the conservative-leaning U.S. Supreme Court also overturned reproductive healthcare protections established by Roe v. Wade. It was an unpopular decision and seemed to help Democrats outperform expectations in the 2022 midterm elections, according to the Annenberg School for Communication.
“You can vote any way you want and no one will ever know,” said actress Julia Roberts in a recent political advertisement targeted at women voters in the U.S.
A recent survey conducted by the American Psychological Association found that 32% of adults said the political climate leading into the election has caused strain among themselves and their family members. Additionally, 30% said they limit their time with family because they don’t share the same values.
As for whether the election is impacting heterosexual couples, The Guardian has already reported that the gender gap dynamic has been “playing out in relationships across the United States,” with “wives and girlfriends voting against husband and boyfriends, partners ‘canceling out’ each other’s ballots.” That outlet also asked readers to share how the election is impacting their relationship.
Head to Audacy Election Central for the latest 2024 election results.