Much will be made in the days ahead of the “women’s vote” and the importance of the abortion issue to McAuliffe’s win. Sadly, there will be many who will draw the wrong conclusions. First, it’s essential to remember that Cucinnelli was not the only pro-life candidate running for governor tonight. Chris Christie, who won the governorship in New Jersey, is also pro-life and handily won 57 percent of female voters. As Katrina notes below, Christie vetoed public funding for Planned Parenthood five times and went on to beat his female Democratic opponent by twelve points among women.
Secondly, “women” are not a monolithic voting block. Although many are citing the exit-poll data showing female voters going for McAuliffe 52–41, among married women, 42 percent went for McAuliffe and 51 percent went for Cuccinelli — that’s even one percentage point higher than the Republicans’ total among married men. The real division was not sex, but marital status. Fifty-eight percent of unmarried men and 67 percent of unmarried women went for McAuliffe.
Take these two points together: Christie’s victory after tackling the life issue from an economic perspective and Cuccinelli’s winning married women while losing the unmarried ones suggest that we need to look carefully at issue framing.
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