Abortion was on the ballot in ten states this election cycle, a move Democrats hoped would boost voter turnout and support for Vice President Kamala Harris.
While seven abortion amendments passed and three failed, “support for these ballot measures outpaced support for Kamala Harris, who made abortion rights a hallmark of her campaign,” CBS News reported.
Exit polls from the outlet show how in two key battleground states, Arizona and Nevada, voters backed abortion amendments while also backing now-President elect Donald Trump, ultimately splitting their ticket.
While most people who voted “yes” for Proposition 139 in Arizona and Question 6 in Nevada also voted for Harris, roughly a quarter of those voters also voted for Trump (23 percent in Arizona and 25 percent in Nevada).
Voters who voted in favor of abortion and also backed Trump rated the economy as their top issue. In Nevada specifically, 55 percent of those who voted for Trump and the abortion measure said the economy was their most important issue when voting for president, following by immigration (21 percent), the state of democracy (nine percent), and last lastly, abortion (five percent).
“A majority described their finances as worse off compared to four years ago, so abortion rights mattered to them, but when it came to voting for president, other issues mattered to them more. These voters were also looking for a candidate who would bring needed change,” CBS News assessed.
READ MORE: Abortion Measures Pass in Seven States, Fail in Three
Exit polling in Nevada shows that nearly every demographic backed the abortion measure more than Harris, including men, women, young voters, and independents:
- Men: 42 percent voted for Harris; 59 percent voted “yes” on abortion measure
- Women: 54 percent voted for Harris; 68 percent voted “yes” on abortion measure
- Republican Women: 5 percent voted for Harris; 35 percent voted “yes” on abortion measure
- Independents: 46 percent voted for Harris; 65 percent voted “yes” on abortion measure
- Voters under 45: 53 percent voted for Harris; 70 percent voted “yes” on abortion measure
The same pattern was seen among Latino voters in Nevada, whom Harris lost ground with compared to Joe Biden in 2020:
- Latino: 48 percent voted for Harris; 69 percent voted “yes” on abortion measure
- Latino Men: 36 percent voted for Harris; 63 percent voted “yes” on abortion measure
- Latina Women: 59 percent voted for Harris; 75 percent voted “yes” on abortion measure
CBS News’s pre-election polling notably found that Harris’s repeated false claim that Trump supports a national abortion ban “did not resonate with most voters outside the Democratic Party.”
“Voters were more apt to believe Trump would leave the matter of abortion to the states, so this may have been on the minds of the voters who backed abortion rights in their own state but also backed Trump,” the report states.
Katherine Hamilton is a political reporter for Breitbart News. You can follow her on X @thekat_hamilton.
