The Trump majority: white womanhood and the making of female voters in the U.S.

Abstract

The estimated 52% of white female voters who supported Donald Trump for President of the United States in 2016 animates this dialogue on the politics of groups and identities. The Trump majority among white women exists in contrast to strong support of Democratic Party candidate Hillary Clinton among women of color as well as minority men. While many observers were surprised at the high proportion of white female Trump voters, this pattern of electoral behavior supporting Republican Party candidates is a consistent phenomenon since the 1950s in U.S. Presidential elections. The pattern is both clear and easily visible, and provides an important clue to better understand the dynamics of race and gender in electoral politics. I argue for political scientists to pursue intersectional analytical perspectives by situating voting behavior within the context of a polity beyond the black-white binary of race and ethnicity. I suggest analysts consider the positionality of white women as second in sex to men, but first in race to minorities, and the invocation of white womanhood in political rhetoric and practice as a potential explanation of the Trump majority.