Exit polls 2024: How the gender gap is playing out in key swing states
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(WASHINGTON) — The gender gap is considered a crucial factor in the presidential election between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump.
Both candidates tried to turn the gap to their advantage, with Harris making reproductive freedom a centerpiece of her campaign while Trump focused heavily on motivating men to turn out to the polls.
Men and women have long voted differently in presidential races, with the gender gap averaging 19 points in exit polls since 1996. But several pollsters told ABC News they were bracing for a “gender chasm” this year given the contrast of a man and a woman at the top of the ticket as well as the prominence of abortion rights as an issue after the fall of Roe v. Wade.
Preliminary results from exit poll data, which may change as polls are updated throughout election night, provide some insight on vote preferences among men and women.
Nationally, Harris has a 10-point advantage with women — 54% to Trump’s 44% — but her support is off a slim 3 points from President Joe Biden’s support with the group in 2020.
Trump, meanwhile, is leading by an identical 10-point margin among men.
There is also a huge gender gap between young men (who are roughly split between Harris and Trump 49%-47%) and young women who back Harris by 26 points.
ABC News has not projected a winner in these races.
Georgia
In Georgia, preliminary results show Harris with a 7-point advantage with women over Trump: 53% support to Trump’s 46%.
Compared to 2020 exit polls, Harris is running slightly behind Biden with women. Women went for Biden by 9 percentage points. Biden ultimately flipped the state blue for the first time in decades, eking out a narrow victory over Trump there by less than 12,000 votes.
Trump has a 12-point advantage with men in Georgia, preliminary results show: 55% to Harris’ 43%. That is the same gap he had there in the 2020 election against Biden.
Among younger voters, those ages 18 to 29, women are swinging for Harris by 29 points. Trump, meanwhile, only has a 2-point advantage among men in the same age group.
North Carolina
In North Carolina, preliminary results show women going for Harris by 13 points while men go for Trump by 15 points.
That is a much wider gender gap than the state saw in 2020, according to exit polls. Biden won women by 7 points there while Trump won men by 9 points.
Among younger voters, Harris has a 33-point lead with women while Trump has a 23-point lead with men.
Pennsylvania
In Pennsylvania — a battleground that is considered to be a possible tipping point state — Harris has a 12-point lead among women: 55% compared to Trump’s 43%.
Trump’s lead with men is slightly higher: he has a 14-point among men: 56% compared to Harris’ 42%.
Again, preliminary exit poll results show a wider gender gap between Harris and Trump than between Biden and Trump. In 2020, women went for Biden by 11 points and men for Trump by 11 points.
Women ages 18 to 29 are swinging for Harris by a 40-point margin, while Trump is leading with men in that age range by 24 points.
Arizona
In Arizona, women are going for Harris by 3 points: 51% to Trump’s 48%.
Trump, meanwhile, boasts a bigger lead among men: 52% support from the group compared to Harris’ 45%.
That’s also a wider gender gap than in 2020, when Biden won women by 3 points and Trump men by 2 points.
Michigan
Harris boasts a 8-point advantage with women in the battleground state, according to preliminary results: 53% compared to Trump’s 45%.
Trump has a 11-point lead among men: 54% compared to Harris’ 43%.
Among younger voters ages 18 to 29, Harris has a 16-point lead with women while Trump has a 20-point lead with men, according to preliminary results.
Wisconsin
Harris is winning with women in Wisconsin by 11 points: 55% compared to Trump’s 44%. She is running slightly behind Biden’s 13-point advantage with women in 2020.
Trump has a 9-point lead with men: 54% compared to Harris’ 45%. Trump in 2020 won men by 10 points in the state.
Among younger voters ages 18 to 29, Harris has a 18-point lead with women while Trump has a 5-point lead with men, according to preliminary results.
Nevada
In Nevada, Harris is winning women 53% to Trump’s 43% — a 10-point gap.
Trump is winning men by a slightly larger margin, according to preliminary results: 55% to 41%.
Official White House Photo by Shealah Craighead. Via Flickr
(WASHINGTON) — After a sweeping victory over Vice President Kamala Harris on Nov. 5, President-elect Donald Trump is now set to become just the second ever to serve nonconsecutive terms in office.
Trump has wasted no time in moving to assemble his team for a second term in the White House — naming Susie Wiles as his chief of staff and New York Rep. Elise Stefanik as U.N. ambassador, among other positions.
November 11, 2024, 7:00 PM EST – Trump asks Rep. Mike Waltz to be his national security adviser: Sources
Trump has asked Rep. Mike Waltz, R-Fla., to be his national security adviser, multiple sources said.
Waltz was at Mar-a-Lago on Monday, sources said.
Waltz is a former Green Beret and China hawk who emerged as a key surrogate for Trump, criticizing the Biden-Harris foreign policy record during the campaign.
The Florida Republican sits on the Intelligence, Armed Services and Foreign Affairs committees.
He has supported aid to Ukraine in the past but has demanded “conditions,” including increased spending from European allies, additional oversight of funds and pairing the aid with border security measures.
Waltz, who has visited Ukraine, was a vocal critic of the Biden administration’s policy towards Ukraine, criticizing the White House and allies for not providing Ukraine with more lethal aid — such as MiG fighter planes — earlier in the conflict.
Before running for elected office, Waltz served in various national security policy roles in the Bush administration, Pentagon and White House.
-ABC News’ Rachel Scott, Benjamin Siegel, John Santucci and Katherine Faulders
November 11, 2024, 6:06 PM EST – Volunteer-run effort on RFK Jr.’s website crowd-sourcing ideas for Trump admin appointments
A volunteer-run effort on Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s website has begun crowd-sourcing ideas for appointments in Trump’s administration.
A website titled “Nominees for the People” gives anyone the chance to submit names of people they’d like to see join the administration.
“President Trump and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. want your help nominating people of integrity and courage for over 4,000 appointments across the future Trump administration,” the website reads.
Stefanie Spear, a Kennedy spokeswoman, told ABC News that the crowd-sourcing effort is “a grassroots initiative run by volunteers,” and is not actually spearheaded by Kennedy, although the page uses the “mahanow.org” URL that Kennedy’s official campaign website adopted after he exited the race.
“We’ve always offered space on our website to our grassroots movement,” Spear said.
This post has been updated to reflect that the crowd-sourcing effort is a volunteer-run effort.
-ABC News’ Sasha Pezenik
November 11, 2024, 5:55 PM EST – Trump’s ‘border czar’ says mass deportation strategy will be a main priority
Former Immigration and Customs Enforcement Director Tom Homan, Trump’s newly announced “border czar,” said his main priority will be overseeing and formulating Trump’s long-vowed mass deportation strategy while consolidating decisions related to border security.
“Everybody talks about this mass deportation operation. President Trump talks about. I’ll oversee that and come up with a strategy for that,” Homan said during a lengthy interview with his hometown television station WWNY on Monday.
Homan said Trump’s mass deportations is “going to be a targeted enforcement operation, concentrating on criminals and national security threats first.”
He acknowledged that the deportations would be costly but argued the policy would “save the taxpayers a lot of money.”
Homan said he does not plan to “separate women and children” but acknowledged that deporting alleged criminals would result in breaking up families.
“When we arrest parents here, guess what? We separate them. The illegal aliens should be no different,” Homan said.
Homan also said worksite enforcement — an aspect of immigration policy focused on unauthorized workers and employers who knowingly hire them — is “going to get fired back up.”
“Under President Trump, we’re going to work it and we’re going to work it hard,” he said.
-ABC News’ Peter Charalambous
November 11, 2024, 5:46 PM EST – Melania Trump skipping meeting with Jill Biden: Sources
Melania Trump is not expected to travel to Washington with President-elect Donald Trump on Wednesday, two sources told ABC News.
First lady Jill Biden had extended an invite to Melania Trump for a meeting, according to the sources. In 2016, Michelle Obama had hosted Melania Trump at the White House.
The Trump campaign declined to comment. The first lady’s office confirmed to ABC News that a joint invitation was extended to the Trumps to meet at the White House though declined to comment beyond that.
-ABC News’ Rachel Scott, John Santucci and Molly Nagle
November 11, 2024, 4:26 PM EST – RFK Jr. advising Trump transition on health decisions: Sources
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has continued to broadly advise Trump and the transition team on health-related appointments and has been in discussions to possibly fill a major role in the next administration, sources familiar with the matter told ABC News.
While sources caution that a role has not been finalized, RFK Jr. has been discussed as a potential candidate for the next secretary of Health and Human Services. But other roles are also on the table, including a broad “czar”-like position that would advise on policy and personnel decisions in other health arenas, the sources said.
RFK Jr. has been in active discussions with the transition team since Trump’s election victory last week. He’s been spotted at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club multiple times and has been engaging in presentations which include candidates for specific Cabinet and health-related jobs, sources said.
He has spent hours with the co-heads of Trump’s transition team — billionaire Howard Lutnick and Linda McMahon — in addition to others at Mar-a-Lago such as Trump’s son Donald Trump Jr.; investor and donor Omeed Malik; Tucker Carlson; and Del Bigtree, RFK Jr.’s former campaign spokesperson who produced a documentary called “Vaxxed: From Cover-Up to Catastrophe.”
-ABC News’ Katherine Faulders, Olivia Rubin and Will McDuffie
November 11, 2024, 3:30 PM EST – Lee Zeldin named to be EPA administrator
President-elect Donald Trump has tapped former New York Rep. Lee Zeldin to lead the Environmental Protection Agency.
“Lee, with a very strong legal background, has been a true fighter for America First policies,” Trump said in a statement. “He will ensure fair and swift deregulatory decisions that will be enacted in a way to unleash the power of American businesses, while at the same time maintaining the highest environmental standards, including the cleanest air and water on the planet. He will set new standards on environmental review and maintenance, that will allow the United States to grow in a healthy and well-structured way.
Zeldin, who also ran for New York governor against Andrew Cuomo in 2022, confirmed he had been offered the job via a post on X.
“It is an honor to join President Trump’s Cabinet as EPA Administrator,” he wrote. “We will restore US energy dominance, revitalize our auto industry to bring back American jobs, and make the US the global leader of AI. We will do so while protecting access to clean air and water.”
-ABC News’ John Santucci, Rachel Scott and Katherine Faulders
November 11, 2024, 3:06 PM EST -RFK Jr. suggests he’ll gut NIH, replace 600 employees
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. indicated over the weekend that he would fire 600 employees at the National Institutes of Health, replacing them with a new cohort of workers as he seeks to dramatically reshape America’s health agencies.
Speaking at the Genius Network Annual Event in Scottsdale, Arizona, Kennedy described his role vetting people for Donald Trump’s new administration.
“We need to act fast, and we want to have those people in place on Jan. 20, so that on Jan. 21, 600 people are going to walk into offices at NIH and 600 people are going to leave,” Kennedy said, according to a video of his remarks posted on YouTube.
November 11, 2024, 3:06 PM EST- Trump expected to announce Stephen Miller as deputy chief of staff
President-elect Donald Trump is expected to announce Stephen Miller, an immigration hard-liner and one of his senior advisers, will become his deputy chief of staff for policy, multiple sources familiar with the matter told ABC News.
It’s not clear when Trump plans to formally announce the job, the sources said.
Miller worked in the first Trump administration and played a key role in crafting immigration policies — including those that resulted in thousands of families being separated at the border.
-ABC News’ Rachel Scott, John Santucci and Katherine Faulders
November 11, 2024, 3:00 PM EST – Trump picks Elise Stefanik as UN ambassador
President-elect Donald Trump selected Rep. Elise Stefanik to be his U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, multiple Trump officials told ABC News.
“I am honored to nominate Chairwoman Elise Stefanik to serve in my Cabinet as U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations. Elise is an incredibly strong, tough, and smart America First fighter,” Trump said in a statement to ABC News.
Stefanik, a Republican congresswoman from New York’s 21st District, was elected last week to her sixth term in the House. She will inherit a role Nikki Haley held for two years in the first Trump administration.
-ABC News’ Rachel Scott, Katherine Faulders and John Santucci
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin gave an impassioned defense of women in combat on Tuesday following Pete Hegseth, President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Department of Defense, arguing that the United States “should not have women in combat roles.”
“I don’t know the potential nominee, so I can’t comment on and won’t comment on anything that he said,” Austin, who was asked about the comments made by Hegseth on women in combat roles, said while in Laos to participate in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations’ Defense Ministers Meeting. “I don’t know what his experiences are, but I can tell you about my experiences with women in the military and women in combat, and they’re pretty good.”
Austin’s comments are the strongest statement from the military since Hegseth, an Army veteran who did tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, was tapped by Trump to lead the DOD.
The Fox News host has said his concerns are with women specifically in ground combat positions, not with pilots or those in other military roles, because he claims they have led to the military’s physical standards being lowered and changed capabilities of combat units.
“I’m OK with the idea that you maintain the standards where they are for everybody. And if there’s some … hard-charging female that meets that standard, great, cool, join the infantry battalion,” Hegseth said during a podcast appearance days before his nomination. “But that is not what’s happened. What has happened is the standards have lowered.”
Speaking on his experience in his tours, Austin said, “Every place I went, there were women doing incredible things, and they were adding value to to the overall effort, whether they were pilots, whether they were operational experts, whether they were intel experts. You know, I see things differently and I see that because of my experience, and that experience is extensive. And so, I think our women add significant value to the United States military, and we should never change that.”
“And if I had a message … to our women, I would say I would tell them that you know we need you. We have faith in you. We are appreciative of your service, and you add value to the finest and most lethal fighting force on earth,” he said.
Of the active-duty military personnel, 17.5% are women, and women make up 21.6% of the selected reserve, according to the Pentagon’s latest statistics.
“I love women service members, who contribute amazingly,” Hegseth said during the podcast appearance earlier this month. But three minutes later, he added, “I’m straight up just saying we should not have women in combat roles. It hasn’t made us more effective, hasn’t made us more lethal, has made fighting more complicated.”
Hegseth’s selection has drawn controversy as some service members express concerns about their futures in the military. Women began being able to be in ground combat units in 2013 after then-Defense Secretary Leon Panetta rescinded a ban on women in these roles. Over 2,500 women serve in previously closed ground combat jobs, ABC News previously reported.
Panetta has come out in opposition to Hegseth’s position on women in combat roles.
“Those kinds of comments come from a past era, and I think it’s important for him to take the time to really look at how our military is performing in an outstanding fashion,” Panetta told ABC News. “We’ve got the best military in the world, and the reason is because we have the best fighting men and women in the world who are part of it.”
(WASHINGTON) — Senate Republicans on Wednesday elected John Thune to be the next Republican leader, succeeding Mitch McConnell in a position he’s held for 17 years.
With McConnell announcing his intent to step aside earlier this year, Thune, the current Republican whip, was running against Sen. John Cornyn, a Texas senator and former Republican whip and Sen. Rick Scott, a Florida Republican who just won reelection to his second term.
Scott was eliminated after the first round of voting by secret ballot on Wednesday before the final round.
Ahead of the vote, Republicans gathered behind closed doors for over two hours Tuesday evening to hear arguments from Thune, Cornyn and Scott, as well as other senators who are running for down-ballot leadership positions. Any other candidate who might wish to throw their name in the running for party leadership would have been permitted to do so during the meeting.
It was described by senators in the room as “energetic” but not a debate.
When the meeting was over, Thune told reporters that Tuesday night was an opportunity for the conference to hear from the candidates.
When asked specifically about the whip count, Thune remained vague.
“You never know until the voters vote,” Thune said.
Cornyn kept quiet leaving the room, “I’ll make my pitch to my colleagues, not to you.”
Even before the Tuesday meeting, the candidates were beginning to make their closing arguments and working to assert their loyalty to Trump, whose influence could certainly sway the outcome of the race.
Cornyn wrote a letter to colleagues Tuesday, obtained by ABC News, in which he repeatedly touted his commitment to Trump’s agenda and confirmation of his Cabinet selections.
“It’s imperative that Republicans hit the ground running to implement President Donald Trump’s agenda for the American people,” Cornyn wrote in the letter, citing GOP success across the House, Senate, an White House.
Scott, meanwhile, has made appearances on cable news outlets in recent days and touted his endorsements from a number of Trump-aligned outside influencers, including Elon Musk and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. He’s tried to position himself as the most Trump-aligned candidate.
And Thune, who perhaps has had the iciest relationship with Trump among the contenders, also made clear he’s been in regular contact with Trump’s team, and he’s made public statements supporting Trump proposals, including potential changes to Senate operating procedure.
Trump has not endorsed a candidate in the leadership race, opting instead to insist that whichever candidate is selected will support his use of recess appointments, which would allow him to temporarily fill federal vacancies without Senate approval.
All three candidates have signaled their willingness to use that strategy to quickly fill out Trump’s Cabinet.
