Forget abortion rights. Forget democracy itself. White women collectively made it clear what the top issue has been all along: White privilege.
For the third straight election, white women, the biggest share of the nation's electorate by gender and race, voted for Donald Trump. For the second time out of the last three elections, they voted against a woman for president of the United States. By bringing Trump back to the White House, they betrayed their comfort with a race-baiting misogynist who should be in prison as a convicted felon instead of sitting in the Oval Office.
In the CNN exit poll, 52 percent of White women, the same as in Trump's victory in 2016 and no serious change from the 55 percent in 2020. However, 98 percent of Black women voted for Hillary Clinton in 2016.
There was no movement in battleground states that President Biden took from Trump in 2020, and Trump clawed back. In Pennsylvania, white women gave Trump 51 percent over their votes, comparable to the 52 percent of 2020. In Wisconsin, white women gave Harris 53 percent of their votes, barely budging from the 52 percent of 2020.
In Georgia, white women's support for Trump increased from 67 percent to 69 percent, approaching the 74 percent Trump support by white men. In Arizona, white women were frozen at the same 52 percent support for Trump of 2020.
To be sure, exit polls are a rough first draft of the electorate. And there were other subplots, such as a big Latinx shift toward Trump despite the castigations of Mexicans and Puerto Ricans. Other subplots did not pan out. Despite the talk that many Black men might desert a Black woman candidate, 20 percent of Black men voted for Trump, little different than the 19 percent of 2020.
In the end, this election was not the nailbiter of 2020 because Trump maintained an iron grip on white women without a college degree, and only suffered minor erosion among college-educated white women. Trump won 60 percent of women without a degree in Pennsylvania.
White women simply deserted their Black sisters (who gave 92 percent of their vote to Harris), voting for the curmudgeon who boasted of grabbing women's genitalia, uttered fecal references about Black nations and Harris, and packed the Supreme Court with judges who overturned a woman's right to an abortion. White women voted for a man who is sure to cut government services that benefit everyone. Having been the biggest beneficiaries of affirmative action, which the Trump courts haves effectively killed, white women collectively have cemented themselves as the front-line soldiers in destroying it for everyone else.
The only possible conclusion is that many white women remain hypnotized by Trump's promise to "take America back" to a time where white was right. Several studies show that the more racial resentment a voter holds, the more likely they were to vote for Trump. Trump rode that resentment all the way back to the White House, with white women as his caddy.
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
98 -> 92 black women.
I really wish they'd put the numbers up front to save me skimming so much verbiage.
Ok - so it seems a fair number of black women who voted for Hillary didn't vote for Kamala.
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
More options
Context