Preliminary exit polls indicate that Kamala Harris won the majority of women’s votes, though by narrower margins than previous Democratic candidates.

Gender was expected to be a defining aspect of the 2024 election, with issues like abortion high on voters’ lists, Trump’s controversial history with women, and Harris as a female candidate of color. Democrats anticipated strong support from women to prevent a Trump win. However, Trump’s electoral and popular vote victory upended expectations, revealing a more complex relationship between identity factors like gender and race and voter preferences.

Here are five early insights from exit polling on how gender influenced the 2024 election:

1. Women favored Harris, but by smaller margins
   While Harris received support from women, it was less pronounced than for past Democratic candidates. Clinton led among women by 13 points in 2016, Biden by 15 in 2020, but Harris won by only 10 points, according to CNN.

2. White women still lean Republican
   Although women as a group tend to favor Democrats, white women have historically supported Republicans, doing so again in 2024. Harris, however, made gains here, losing white women by only 5 points, down from Trump’s 11-point lead in 2020. Notably, Trump’s lead among white men also decreased, from 23 points in 2020 to 20 in 2024.

3. Young women largely supported Harris, but Trump gained ground
   Trump’s campaign, aimed at young men through prominent male influencers, increased the gender divide among younger voters. While 58% of young women (ages 18-29) voted for Harris, 56% of young men voted for Trump. Trump’s support grew among young women and men, compared to his 2020 numbers of 33% and 41%, respectively.

4. Harris lost support among Latino men and women
   Latino men shifted significantly toward Trump, who won this group by 10 points. Harris won Latina women by 24 points, a substantial drop from Clinton’s 44-point lead in 2016.

5. Black women remain Democrats’ strongest supporters
   Black women continued to be a reliable Democratic voting bloc, with Harris winning this group by 85 points, the largest margin across gender and racial categories. Additionally, Delaware and Maryland elected Black women, Lisa Blunt Rochester and Angela Alsobrooks, to the Senate, marking the first time two Black women will serve in the Senate simultaneously.