There’s a story going around that Hillary lost because of all the white males who voted for Trump.
That’s false. She lost because she didn’t have the same level of support as Obama did by women, blacks, millennials, and Hispanics.
Trump actually gained support among those groups over what Romney had last election.
Via the UK’s Telegraph:
Early signs as to how this unexpected result occurred can be seen in demographic exit poll data, with Clinton doing worse than expected among women, Hispanic voters and African Americans.
By comparing Clinton’s performance to Obama’s in 2012 it is easy to see that she failed to appeal to a number of key voter groups. Groups that it was predicted she would have more support from.
Women didn’t back Hillary
Donald Trump’s problems with women have been well documented in the media. He has consistently made derogatory remarks against women, calling some “dogs” and “slobs”.
At the beginning of October a tape of Trump apparently celebrating sexual assault in a conversation with Billy Bush was released by the Washington Post. It led to a series of allegations against Trump as women came forward to speak out, causing his polling numbers to slump.
This was thought to have helped to drive women to vote for Clinton, with some polls showing a double-figure divide between men and women’s support for the presidential candidates.
Although last night’s exit polls do show that 54 per cent of women backed Clinton compared to 42 per cent for Trump, these numbers were not significantly different from how women voted in 2012.
In the 2012 presidential race 55 per cent of women backed Obama while 44 per cent backed Romney.
Despite all the headlines surrounding Trump, it seems that women didn’t feel they could get behind Hillary Clinton.
Clinton had less support from the young
In 2012, a majority of over-50s backed Romney for the presidency, while Obama got the support of three in five of those aged under 30.
In 2016, polling was showing that Trump’s supportamong older sections of society had improved on Romney’s figure – with 49 per cent of over-65s supporting him, compared to 29 per cent of 18 to 39-year-olds.
This was hugely positive for Trump in the key swing state of Florida. Worth 29 electoral college votes, Florida’s high over-65 population was expected to back the Republican candidate leaving Clinton in need of a solid turnout among younger voters if she was to win the state.
However, the exit polls showed that Clinton’s popularity among younger voters was much lower than Obama’s.
Of those voters aged under 30 years of age, only 55 per cent backed Clinton compared to Obama’s 60 per cent in 2012.
This might have proved enough to swing Florida towards Trump and it could also be a factor behind his victory in Pennsylvania – something which there was less expectation of.