The female vote was critical in helping to re-elect Barack Obama this year in all swing states…except Colorado, according to Rutgers University’s Center for American Women in Politics. According to the press release, nationally, a majority of women (55%) voted for Obama, while a majority of men (52%) voted for Mitt Romney. The press release further notes that:
“Defined as the difference in the proportions of women and men voting for the winning candidate, a sizable gender gap was evident in the election results.The gender gap was 10 percentage points in 2012, with 55 percent of women, but only 45 percent of men, voting for Obama. The gender gap in this year’s presidential race is larger than in any year except 1996, when it was 11 percentage points. There was a 7-point gender gap in the final vote in both 2004 and 2008. Obama won about the same proportion of women voters in 2012.”
Most interesting among the findings was what wasn’t there – the gender gap in Colorado evaporated in the 2012 election. When defined as Rutgers does above, as the difference between the proportions of women and men voting for the winning candidate, Colorado saw Obama’s voters as 50% women and 50% men. Even Romney’s gender percentages were not terribly far apart with 46% of voters as female and 49% as male.
To put it in perspective, eight of the nine swing states had gender gaps. Colorado was the one that didn’t. The following is the gender gap in each swing state: Iowa (15 points), New Hampshire (11 points), Nevada (10 points), Ohio (10 points), Wisconsin (10 points), Florida (7 points), Virginia (7 points), North Carolina (5 points), and Colorado (0 points).
Below is a chart showing how women and men voted in the nine swing states. Colorado came pretty close to even across the board.
Colorado performed far differently than the remainder of the swing states. Perhaps it’s because the “war on women” model was developed here and women are growing wearing of talking about their reproductive organs. Or maybe, while Republicans were not successful this election, there were some groups on the right that fought back against the left’s outrageous attacks. While Republicans still were outspent this election, the fact that they weren’t steamrolled this election like in 2010 is a testament to the power of fighting back.
Most of the women who advocated "voting with your lady parts" obviously had their heads in said location.