Kamala Harris has an “off-the-charts” 21-point lead over Donald Trump among women, polling shows.
While the November election is expected to be an extremely tight contest, there are large margins among some demographics. In a new NBC News poll, women’s support for Harris was at 58 percent, 21 points ahead of Trump’s 37 percent.
The survey was conducted among 1,000 registered voters, between September 13 and 17, with a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.
Conversely, Trump has a 12-point lead over Harris among men, with 52 percent supporting him and 40 percent backing Harris.
In total, this is a gender gap of 33 points, which would “obliterate” the “historically high” gender gaps already seen in the 2020 and 2016 elections, NBC News political correspondent Steve Kornacki said.
While a gender gap has long been a “staple” in American politics, it is “absolutely off the charts” to see “anything like a 33-point gender gap in November,” he said.
Newsweek has contacted the Trump and Harris campaigns by email for comment.
At a Monday rally in Pennsylvania, Trump said: “I always thought women liked me, I never thought I had a problem. But the fake news keep saying that women don’t like—I don’t believe it. You know what, they like to have strong borders, they like to have safety.”
The NBC poll is just one of several surveys and experts that have predicted a “larger-than-normal gender gap in 2024,” as Melissa Deckman, Public Religion Research Institute CEO and author of The Politics of Gen Z: How the Youngest Voters Will Shape Our Democracy, previously told Newsweek.
One reason for this could be abortion, which is turning out to be one of the most important issues in this election as the Democratic Party tries to position itself as the party of reproductive freedom.
“Trump has an increasing gender gap and has been losing support among women voters, particularly among suburban women for whom abortion appears to be a top issue,” professor Sophia Jordán Wallace of the University of Washington’s Department of Political Science told Newsweek.
She said she believes one of Harris’ “strongest points” is her position on abortion.
Vice President Kamala Harris speaks at a campaign event, in Madison, Wisconsin, on September 20. Women’s support for Harris is at 58 percent, 21 points ahead of Donald Trump’s 37 percent, according to a new poll.
AP
Democratic Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer previously said abortion was such a mobilizing issue for women that it was the reason some Republican women ended up supporting her in her last election.
Whitmer told the 9 to 5ish With theSkimm podcast in July: “I sat across the table from so many women who said: ‘I’m a Republican, I did not vote for you, but I’m out knocking doors for you this time around because you’re the only one fighting for my daughter’s right.”
Trump says he believes the states should have the power to determine their own abortion policies and has denied Democratic claims that he would pursue a nationwide ban on the procedure. But has not been willing to say he would veto a national ban if it came across his desk.
Trump’s running mate, Senator JD Vance, has faced criticism for his comments about women, most recently for a resurfaced remark he made on a podcast in 2021, when he said professional women “choose a path to misery” when they prioritize careers over having children.
Speaking to American Moment, a conservative nonprofit, Vance said: “You have women who think that truly the liberationist path is to spend 90 hours a week working in a cubicle…instead of starting a family and having children.
“What they don’t realize—and I think some of them do eventually realize that, thank God—is that that is actually a path to misery. And the path to happiness and to fulfillment is something that these institutions are telling people not to do.”
Newsweek has contacted Vance’s team via email for comment.
