Trump’s “running buddy’s” statements about “women with cats and no children” became a campaign issue, so Taylor Swift expressed her support for Harris by signing off as “Taylor Swift Childless Cat Lady.”
President-elect Donald Trump won over just over half of voters who have cats or dogs, with a big help from dog owners, according to a poll of more than 120,000 voters.
Os dog owners were much more likely to support Republican than Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris, while the support of cat owners was divided between the two candidates, according to AP VoteCast, a comprehensive survey of more than 120,000 voters across the country.
About two-thirds of voters said they owned a dog or cat, but pet owners don’t usually get much attention from politicians.
This year, however, statements from Trump’s running mate, Ohio Senator J.D. Vance, about “women with cats and no children” briefly became a campaign issue, such that Taylor Swift expressed her support for Harris on the social network Instagram in September signing as “Taylor Swift Childless Cat Lady”.
Harris ended up decisively winning the support from women who owned a catbut not a dog.
Still, these voters represented a relatively small slice of the electorate, and pet owners as a whole did not appear to punish Republicans for Vance’s remarks.
Harris has found success with cat ownersbut not with men who owned cats.
No children or not, the women who owned just one cat were more likely to support Harris than dog owners or voters who had a cat and a dog.
About 6 in 10 women who owned a cat but not a dog supported Harrisaccording to AP VoteCast. The Democrat had a similar performance among women who did not own any type of pet.
His success with women who owned cats didn’t translate to men. Trump narrowly won the support of men who only owned cats, with just over half of those voters supporting him.
It’s impossible to know how much Vance’s statements influenced Harris’ success with cat-owning women, but most of those voters had a “very” or “somewhat” unfavorable opinion of Vance, said Associated Press (AP) author of the research.
Women who only have cats were more likely to dislike it than women who only have dogs or women who have both dogs and cats. They were also more likely than female voters overall to have a negative view of Trump and the Republican Party.
A simple explanation for the division is that the women who owned cats were never very inclined to vote for Trumpeven before Vance’s comments resurfaced.
According to AP VoteCast, only about 4 in 10 female voters who only owned a cat were Republican.
Do Democrats have to win over dog owners?
The result of the 2024 elections suggests that Democrats may have some work to do with dog owners. Voters who owned a dog, including those who also owned a cat, were more likely to support Trump and represented a larger share of the electorate.
Although the Trump campaign did not make the same appeals to dog owners that the Harris campaign made to cat owners, Trump falsely claimed that immigrants in Ohio were stealing and eating dogs and cats.
But, as with Vance’s observations, there is no evidence that Trump’s statements have influenced pet owners’ decisions.
