“Harris falls short with female voters, stunning Democrats,” reads the election postmortem in the Hill. Truth be told, Democrats weren’t the only ones stunned by the scope of the resounding win for President-elect Donald Trump and Vice President-elect J.D. Vance. Consultants and pundits on both sides of the political aisle expected a massive gender gap, driven particularly by the 18-29-year-old demographic and motivated by the issue of access to abortion for young women.
The perception that a strong backlash against the Supreme Court’s decision overturning Roe v. Wade would manifest itself in a huge turnout of that demographic for Vice President Kamala Harris was widely shared, and perhaps for good reason. After all, the court’s Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision did contribute to the GOP’s underperformance in 2022, and to the resounding defeat of pro-life initiatives even in red states.
