Trump repels women—and he just keeps making it worse

In 2020, Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden was the beneficiary of a massive gender gap that propelled him to the White House. According to exit polls, Donald Trump won men by 8 percentage points (53% to Biden’s 45%) but lost women by 15 points (42% to Biden’s 57%)—a huge 23-point gender gap. 

That was before Trump’s largely handpicked Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and ended the constitutional right to abortion, and before the Democratic Party nominated a dynamic woman candidate to face a tired, grumpy Trump in 2024. The result: The latest Quinnipiac University poll has Vice President Kamala Harris winning women by 21 points (58% to Trump’s 37%), and Trump winning men by 18 points (57% to Harris’ 39%)—a yawning 39-point gender gap. 

That gap is on the larger side among recent polls, though. Emerson College’s recent swing-state polls show the difference in most states hovering around 20-25 points (much like it did in 2020), but pollsters might struggle to account for the recent massive increase in voter registration among women. 

There is a tsunami brewing among women voters. So what’s Trump doing about it? Making things worse for himself.