Exit Poll: 68% of Unmarried Women Favored Democrats in Midterm Election

Sixty-eight percent of unmarried women favored Democrats in the U.S. House midterm elections compared to 31 percent who favored Republicans, according to exit poll data.

In comparison, 52 percent of unmarried men favored Republicans over 45 percent who favored Democrats.

For married men, 59 percent said they supported a Republican candidate compared to 39 percent who supported a Democrat, while 56 percent of married women supported a Republican candidate compared to 42 percent who supported a Democrat.

Overall, 59 percent of unmarried voters supported Democrats compared to 39 percent who supported Republicans, whereas 58 percent of married voters supported Republicans compared to 41 percent who supported Democrats.

Married men and women each made up 30 percent of the respondents (60 percent), while nonmarried women made up 23 percent of the respondents, and nonmarried men made up 16 percent.

Furthermore, 55 percent of women without children favored Democrats compared to 44 percent who favored Republicans. However, 57 percent of male voters with no children favored Republicans compared to 45 percent who preferred Democrats. Women with no children made up 39 percent of the respondents, while men with no children made up 33 percent.

Even women with children were more likely to support Democrats over Republicans by 51 percent to 47 percent, while men with children broke for Republicans over Democrats by 54 percent to 42 percent.

The exit polling data also showed that abortion was a major driver in motivating women to vote Tuesday.

Thirty-three percent of women said that abortion was their most important issue, with 77 percent of those respondents supporting Democrat candidates compared to 22 percent supporting Republican candidates. The next most important issue for women was inflation at 28 percent, followed by crime, gun policy, and immigration, which were all equal at ten percent.

A majority of women (67 percent) also said they were either angry or dissatisfied with Roe v. Wade being overturned, with 72 percent of women who supported Democrat candidates agreeing, compared to 27 percent who supported Republicans. On the other hand, 30 percent of women were either enthusiastic or satisfied with Roe being overturned, with a majority supporting Republicans (84 percent) compared to Democrats (15 percent).

For men, only 22 percent said abortion was their most import issue compared to 35 percent who said inflation. Moreover, 13 percent of men stated crime was their most important issue, followed by gun policy at 12 percent and immigration at 11 percent.

As of Wednesday night, Republicans are favored to take control of the U.S. House, while the U.S. Senate remains up in the air as votes are still being counted in Arizona and Nevada. The Georgia U.S. Senate race is slated to go to a runoff in December.

The national exit poll was conducted by Edison Research in conjunction with major networks across the nation. Those surveyed included 18,571 respondents nationwide that voted in a U.S. House race — with 8,688 being men and 9,797 being women. The exit polls were last updated on November 9 at 2:14 p.m. Eastern.

You can follow Ethan Letkeman on Twitter @EthanLetkeman.