ANES 2024 Election & Spousal Data

This analysis uses third-party data from the 2024 American National Election Study (ANES) to understand how ideologically-moderate white women and their spouses engaged with the election and how political attitudes align within couples. The findings help Galvanize Action understand how household dynamics and the broader 2024 election context shape women’s civic engagement including vote choice.

KEY FINDINGS

• Ideologically-moderate white women leaned slightly more Democratic in 2024 than in previous cycles. Those who were leaning ideologically-left appear to be continuing farther along that trajectory.
• The spouses of moderate women emerged as an engaged and complex audience. Many voted for Kamala Harris, support abortion legality to some extent, and recognize racial inequity. They are, however, less prosocial on immigration and gender equity, and overall lean ideologically-conservative.
• Most husbands and wives voted the same way, suggesting that ideological differences within couples don’t always translate into differences in vote choice. This challenges the idea that there are deep political divides within households. Note: spousal sample size is small (n=136), so results are directional not conclusive.

Details

How Did Ideologically-Moderate Women Feel Going into the 2024 Election?

Before the 2024 election, the emotional landscape among ideologically-moderate white women was defined more by concern than optimism. Feelings like worry, irritation, nervousness and fear were widespread, with over three-quarters of respondents describing these emotions as at least ‘somewhat’ true for them. Outrage and anger were also relatively common, pointing to an underlying sense of instability and frustration about the direction of the country. Positive emotions like hope, pride, and happiness were less frequently endorsed. While some respondents felt somewhat hopeful, that optimism often co-existed with stronger negative feelings. Taken together, these results highlight a pre-election environment characterized by emotional fatigue and uncertainty rather than enthusiasm.

What Traits Do Our Audience Attribute to the 2024 Election Candidates?

Kamala Harris was viewed more favorably across all traits, particularly as energetic (56%) and knowledgeable (47%). The largest gap between the two candidates was on honesty. While these results come from an ideologically-left-leaning sample, they are still notable given the moderate to high internalized sexism and colorblind racial resentment traits in our audience.

DID OUR AUDIENCE APPROVE OF BIDEN’S HANDLING OF KEY ISSUES?

Pre-election approval of Biden’s performance varied widely by issue. Over 50% approved of how he handled abortion policy, crime, and foreign relations, while the economy and immigration received the lowest ratings. Although this sample leans more ideologically-liberal overall, the clear rank order of approval—Biden is ranked strongest on social issues and weakest on economic and immigration issues—likely reflects broader patterns that extend across ideologies in our audience. 

VOTING BEHAVIOR 

Voting intent and behavior remained largely consistent across pre- and post-election measures. Nearly all those who intended to vote for Harris (97%) and Trump (94%) did so. Among all respondents, 52% voted for Kamala Harris, 26% for Donald Trump, 2% for another candidate, and 20% did not vote. Most made their decision well in advance of Election Day (54% decided six or more months before). But about 28% made their choice in the final two months, suggesting that while most preferences were stable, a meaningful minority remained open-minded late in the cycle. ​Looking across previous elections, vote choice in our audience remained relatively stable from 2016 to 2024, but movement favored Democrats more than Republicans. Within our audience, most prior Democrats continued voting Democratic, 91% from 2016 to 2020 and 86% from 2020 to 2024, while Republican retention was slightly weaker at 71% and 73%, respectively. Nonvoting also proved consistent, with 55% of those who did not vote in 2016 continuing to abstain in 2024. More of our audience shifted from Republican to Democrat than the reverse, contributing to modest Democratic gains over time. 

SPOUSAL DATA

Our audience’s husbands tend to be civically engaged, moderately skeptical of the government, and ideologically-right-leaning in their civic choices. Most (76%) say they trust the government only ‘some of the time’ or ‘about half of the time,’ and nearly two-thirds (63%) agree that public officials don’t care about people like them. On corruption, 36% believe ‘most’ government officials are corrupt and another 30% say ‘about half,’ pointing to skepticism but not deep distrust. Ideologically, about one-third identify as moderate, 42% fall on the conservative side, and about one in four identify as liberal. Political participation is high, 68% were extremely likely to vote, and another 10% had already voted. Within the household, political discussion varies, with some couples talking about politics daily (19%) and others avoiding the topic altogether (13%). On conspiracy thinking; 81% correctly say that Joe Biden won the 2020 election, while about 20% believe Donald Trump did—a notable share that suggests women in our audience are exposed to conspiratorial views at home. Overall, husbands appear engaged and steady in their views: more ideologically-conservative than their partners, somewhat distrustful of the government, and not immune to misinformation.

On racial equity, the majority of husbands (57%) recognize that Black Americans face disadvantages, signaling an awareness of structural inequity. Still, nearly a third (30%) believe Black Americans have equal advantages and disadvantages, reflecting colorblind attitudes, and about 13% believe Black Americans have more advantages, reflecting racial resentment. On immigration levels, most spouses show a preference for the status-quo or more restrictive policies. Over a third (37%) want immigration levels to stay the same, and another 45% favor some degree of decrease. Less than one in five support increasing immigration. On abortion, the majority (60%) support legal access to abortion, with 22% of spouses believing that abortion should always be legal for any reason. Just under one-quarter (23%) favor greater restriction (scores 5–7). Overall, most spouses support abortion rights in principle, but may pair that support with conditional or situational qualifiers rather than viewing it as an absolute right. On transgender participation in K–12 sports, spouses’ views are notably stronger and more conservative than on other issues. A majority (59%) favor banning transgender athletes, while only 25% oppose such a ban. The issue of trans rights, especially when framed around children, tends to trigger backlash in our audience and we find that the same is true for their spouses, and to a higher degree.

This figure shows how ideologically-moderate white women and their spouses’ aligned when asked if they had to choose between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump. Most couples voted the same way: 77% of Harris voters were married to another Harris voter, and 77% of Trump voters were married to another Trump voter. Cross-voting was limited: 16% of women who supported Trump had spouses who supported Harris, while 11% of Harris-supporting women had spouses who voted for Trump. Among women who said they would not vote, just over half (57%) had spouses who also said they wouldn’t vote, while 36% had spouses who said they’d vote for Trump and 7% for Harris. Overall, the data reflect strong alignment within couples and suggest that for most households, voting behavior is a shared, rather than divided, decision.

TAKEAWAYS

Overall, the 2024 election and spousal data suggest that alignment within households is strong. Husbands are more ideologically-conservative than our audience but not dramatically so, and they share similar levels of civic engagement and trust in institutions. Their views reveal many of the same off-ramps we see among ideologically-moderate white women: acknowledging inequality in principle while resisting policy change on immigration and gender issues. These results point to a shared, ideologically-moderate foundation that may help explain the steadiness of women’s civic attitudes over time. However, the spousal sample is small (n=136), so these findings should be viewed as directional rather than conclusive.

METHODOLOGY

• Audience: Ideologically Moderate US White Women
• Sample size: 794 (726 with post-election data, 136 with spouse data)
• Dates in field: Pre-election: August 3, 2024 to November 5, 2024; Post-election: November 7, 2024 to February 17, 2025