Kamala Harris Saw Unmarried Women Shift Toward Donald Trump

A larger percentage of unmarried women voted for President-elect Donald Trump in this year's election than in 2020 despite a major voting gender gap predicted, an exit poll shows.

Historically, more women have voted for the Democrats while more men have voted for the Republicans, but the gender gap was a major theme in the run-up to last week's election, with the divide predicted at one point to be the largest in history .

However, a CNN exit poll shows that fewer unmarried women voted for the Democratic nominee , Vice President Kamala Harris, than in 2020, when Joe Biden was its candidate, while more voted for Trump.

Some 59 percent of unmarried women cast a ballot for Harris, while 38 percent backed Trump, according to the poll, which questioned 22,914 people.

In 2020, 63 percent of unmarried women backed Biden while 36 percent voted for Trump, according to the poll, which questioned 15,590 people.

It comes after Trump's campaign faced controversy over women's issues at multiple points, including when a clip resurfaced showing Vice President-elect JD Vance calling certain women in the Democratic Party "childless cat ladies."

The comment was a reference in several celebrity endorsements for the Democratic Party, famously including Taylor Swift , who signed off her endorsement message after the September 10 presidential debate with "childless cat lady."

Final polls before the election pointed to a significant gender divide , according to Newsweek analysis. Harris had the support of 52 percent of female voters and 43 percent of male voters, while 53 percent of male voters backed Trump compared to 44 percent of female voters.

The gender gap is not a new phenomenon. Women have been more likely to support Democrats and men have been more likely to support Republicans since the 1980s, and the political divide has only grown over time.

Newsweek has contacted the Trump, Vance and Harris teams via email for comment.

CNN exit polling of more than 22,000 voters also showed that Trump's support rose among male Latinos, people under 30, those living in rural areas and moderates.

Additionally, Trump outperformed Harris in terms of younger and new voters—blocs that President Joe Biden dominated in 2020.

CNN's poll was conducted between October 24 and November 2. The results have a margin of error of plus or minus 2 percentage points.