Half of the Women Who Lost Their Jobs During COVID-19 Are Still Voting for Trump

A new poll of registered women voters by the nonpartisan civic education group All In Together found that while the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has drastically affected the lives of women in the United States, over 80 percent of 1000 registered women voters polled say they are committed to voting in November. 

Of the women polled, the majority of Latinas, Black women, and undecided voters said they plan to vote for the Democratic candidate, with undecided women saying they are more inclined to vote for the Democratic candidate and African American women showing strong support for the Democrat. Women who have lost wages due to the pandemic also reported being inclined to vote for the Democratic nominee. 

“There is no question that women are leaning blue,” All In Together Co-Founder and CEO Lauren Leader told Supermajority News. “But you can’t overlook that the highest percentage of women who say they are voting the fall are Republican women.” 

The Republican women polled expressed the deepest commitment to voting in November, with 86 percent saying they are committed to heading to the voting booth. That’s compared to 80% of Independent voters and 79.5% of Democrats. White women were also more likely to say they would definitely vote in November than members of any other racial or ethnic group.

But while the poll found that while the majority of women continue to view President Donald Trump unfavorably, women who voted for Trump in 2016 reported they were likely to vote for him again, even if they experienced job loss in recent weeks. “The big story in 2016 was that 52 percent of non-college educated white women voted for Trump. When you look at the women who lost their jobs [because of the pandemic], it overlaps very much with that demographic,” said Leader. “White, older, non-college educated women are disproportionately losing jobs over COVID, but they are with him.”

While Latina women said they were largely in support of Biden’s candidacy, they also reported that they were less likely to vote. The under-engagement of Latina women was consistent throughout the polling dating, with 20 percent of Latinas surveyed saying that they were unlikely to vote. Leader says these findings are an opportunity to build deeper relationships with the community.

“Latina women have been one of the fastest-growing groups of new voters in the last decade and what we found is that they are even more burdened by COVID-related challenges than other women — both in terms of caregiving and financial stresses,” said Leader, adding that Latinas also tended to be younger than the average voter. On a policy level, “we need their issues addressed.”

Another big factor in increasing enthusiasm among all voters in November is Biden’s pick for Vice President, said Leader. “I think the press has vastly underestimated the impact of what a female vice presidential candidate will have on this cycle,” she said, especially among swing and undecided voters. “I think that the Vice Presidential choice has never mattered more.”