President-elect Donald Trump is gambling with the support of a crucial voting bloc who helped him secure his 2024 Election Day victory — and Democrats could be the winners, a new political analysis contends.
Trump won in large part thanks to women voters who ignored qualms and voted for the candidate they felt more likely to address their concerns about immigration and inflation, CNN analyst Ronald Brownstein wrote Tuesday.
"Many women uneasy about Trump on all those fronts, strategists in both parties agree, put greater weight on their more immediate concerns," Brownstein wrote.
Brownstein argued these women rolled the dice on Trump rather than stick with the incumbent party — even though Trump has proposed policies that economists broadly warn will make inflation worse.
But this means that Trump is entering office with an extremely fragile coalition that includes women who find him largely distasteful and untrustworthy, Brownstein argued.
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From the instant Trump entered office for his first term, his numbers with women were catastrophic, Brownstein wrote.
"Over his first four-year tenure, his approval rating among women averaged just 35% in Gallup polling," he wrote. "That was well below his 48% average approval rating among men – and by far the worst showing across a full term for any 21st century president among women in the Gallup surveys."
These numbers aren't likely to improve the second time around, argued Brownstein.
"Trump’s provocative initial round of Cabinet nominations – including three separate figures who have faced serious allegations of sexual misconduct – points toward a presidency whose style and agenda could again strain his support from female voters," the analyst wrote.
And Trump's picks open a door for Democrats, Brownstein concluded.
"Almost everything Trump has done since his win suggests that his second stint in the White House could feature even more of the conflict, chaos and belligerence that alienated women, to a much greater degree than men, during his first term," he concluded.
"And that may be the one viable lifeline available to Democrats as they try to emerge from the disappointment of the 2024 results."
