Apparently, some states just aren’t important enough for pollsters to collect exit polls (I know, it annoys me too), so I haven’t been able to write about how women have been voting for the past couple primary cycles.
No exit polls were collected for Hawaii or Idaho on Tuesday, but I suspect women voted similarly in those states as they have in many others. Texas Sen. Ted Cruz won Idaho and business mogul Donald Trump won Hawaii.
But we have exit poll analysis for Michigan and Mississippi, so let’s take a look at how women voted.
Michigan
Fifty-three percent of Republican voters in Michigan Tuesday night were men, while 47 percent were women. Men heavily favored Trump with 45 percent of their vote, compared to 22 percent voting for Ohio Gov. John Kasich and 21 percent voting for Cruz. (Florida Sen. Marco Rubio received a dismal 8 percent of the male vote.)
From what I’ve been told by those in the auto industry, much of Trump’s support in the state comes from factory workers and Reagan Democrats who are seeing their industries collapse and head overseas and believe Trump to be the only candidate speaking to their plight.
Women, on the other hand, split evenly between Trump and Cruz at 29 percent each. Twenty-five percent of women voted for Kasich, and 12 percent voted for Rubio (notice that, yet again, more women than men voted for the Florida senator).
That’s a huge — yuge, even — gender gap on the Republican side in Michigan. Will it matter in the general election? Absolutely not, because Michigan is likely going to vote Democratic.
For Democrats in Michigan, women made up 56 percent of Tuesday’s voters, while men made up 44 percent. Women favored former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, 51 percent to 43 percent for Bernie Sanders. Men favored the Vermont senator 55 percent to 46 percent.
Mississippi
Among Republicans, men and women voted in equal numbers in Mississippi Tuesday night, and both sexes voted for Trump, 51 percent and 46 percent, respectively. Cruz came in a distant second with each sex, as 35 percent of men and 38 percent of women voted for the Texas senator. This is also the first time I’ve seen more women than men voting for Cruz.
Democrats saw a huge gender gap in the state, with women making up 64 percent of the vote and men making up just 36 percent. Clinton won both sexes handily, with 79 percent of men and 85 percent of women voting for the former secretary of state. Just 19 percent of men and 15 percent of women voted for Sanders.
Ashe Schow is a commentary writer for the Washington Examiner.
