Gender and the 2018 U.S. Congressional Election

Abstract

Nationally in the U.S. women started to identify more than men with the Democratic Party than the Republican Party in the 1960s and began to vote consistently more often than men for a Democratic rather than Republican presidential candidate beginning in 1980. The suspected causes of this political gender gap have tended to vary with shifting social and political contexts. One relative constant has been women’s greater preference for candidates who have expressed support for policies and legislation viewed as promoting economic justice. The current study employs regression analyses of data from online interviews of 1228 voters in five Midwestern states, three of which were won by the Republican candidate for president in 2016 and two by the Democratic candidate, to gauge the relative importance of several factors on gender gaps regarding party preference, opinion on then President Donald Trump, and voter choice in the 2018 Congressional Election. The results suggest that differences between women’s and men’s views on gun control, immigration, economic justice, religious diversity, and criminal justice reform largely accounted for the political gender gaps.