Politics

FACT CHECK: Did Trump Get More Of The Women’s Vote Than Hillary Clinton?

President_Donald_Trump | circa February 2018 | Official White House Photo by Shealah Craighead

President Donald Trump said Thursday that he got a greater share of the women’s vote than his Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential election.

Verdict: False

The national exit poll that major news organizations rely upon found that a majority of women, 54 percent, voted for Clinton in the 2016 election.

Fact Check:

Trump claimed that he won more of the women’s vote than Clinton while listing off statistics about record low unemployment rates for several demographics during his speech Thursday in Granite City, Ill. He apologized for women’s unemployment “only” reaching a 65-year low while unemployment figures for some other demographic groups are the lowest ever recorded.

“I’m sorry, women, to disappoint you. This is tough,” Trump said. “But I did win that women’s vote, didn’t I? Remember? Remember they said, ‘Why would women vote for Trump?’ Well, I don’t know, but I got more than she did. That’s pretty good.”

About 54 percent of women voted for Clinton and 41 percent voted for Trump, according to the 2016 national exit poll conducted by Edison Research. (Some outlets reported the exit poll showing that 42 percent of women voted for Trump.)

Trump did win a majority of the vote from white women, though. About 53 percent of white women voted for Trump and 43 percent voted for Clinton, according to the exit poll. Clinton won 94 percent of the vote from black women and 69 percent of the vote from Latino women, while Trump earned 4 percent and 25 percent, respectively.

The exit poll also found that 63 percent of unmarried women voted for Clinton compared to 49 percent of married women.

Edison conducts national exit polls in presidential election years for the National Election Pool, a consortium of major news organizations that has historically included ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, Fox News and The Associated Press.

The exit poll results are based on more than 24,500 questionnaires completed by randomly selected voters as they left the polls on Election Day and through telephone interviews with early or absentee voters. The typical margin of error is 4 points, according to The Washington Post. Clinton’s advantage with female voters is outside that margin of error.

Some analysts have called the accuracy of the 2016 exit poll into question.

The Center for American Progress (CAP) found that the exit poll overestimated the share of white college-educated voters and underestimated the share of white non-college-educated voters.

The CAP analysis did not question the exit poll’s breakdown of the women’s vote, however, and Edison’s national exit poll remains the authoritative source for news outlets. A Pew Research Center survey found that about 56 percent of registered female voters affiliate with or lean toward the Democratic Party.

Despite criticism, Edison maintains that its polling is accurate and says that its network clients have never made an incorrect projection based on exit poll data since it started conducting the polls in 2003. “We are very proud of this, and of our role in our great democratic process,” Tom Webster, a senior vice president at Edison, wrote in a post on the company’s website.

The AP and Fox News left the National Election Pool in 2017 amid concerns over the reliability of the polling. The AP has built a new system of surveys and online polling for future elections that aims to help overcome the drawbacks of the traditional exit poll.

The White House did not respond to a request for comment.

Follow Emily on Twitter

Have a fact check suggestion? Send ideas to [email protected]