Gender Gaps in Voting Evident Across All 2016 U.S. Senate Races

Gender gaps in voting were widespread across U.S. Senate races in the 2016 elections, according to an analysis of Edison Research exit polls conducted by the Center for American Women and Politics (CAWP), a unit of the Eagleton Institute of Politics at Rutgers University. Gender gaps in voting, defined as measurable differences in the proportions of women and men who voted for the winning candidate, were evident in all of the 20 U.S. Senate races involving candidates of both parties where exit polls were conducted. Women were more likely than men to support the Democratic candidate by margins of 3 to 16 percentage points -- and less likely to support the Republican -- in each race.  (See table below.)

In highly contested races in Missouri, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, women and men preferred different candidates.  In Missouri, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, men’s preferences prevailed and Republicans were victorious.  In Nevada and New Hampshire, women’s preferences won out and Democratic candidates were elected.

Susan J. Carroll, senior scholar at CAWP, observed, “The widespread evidence of gender differences in candidate preferences, even in an election as unusual and unpredictable as 2016, is a testament to the enduring nature of the gender gap.”

An 11 percentage-point gender gap was also apparent in U.S. House races, with women voters more likely than men to favor Democratic candidates. Nationally, 54% of women, compared with 43% of men, voted for the Democratic congressional candidates in their districts; 44% of women, compared with 55% of men, voted for Republican U.S. House candidates.

2016 Exit Poll Data: Vote in U.S. Senate Races

* The gender gap shown for each poll in the table is based on the responses for the winning candidate. Contest winners are in boldface.

** Exit polls were conducted in only 21 Senate races.  California results are not shown because the state’s open primary system produced two Democratic candidates in the general election.