WSJ Poll: White Suburban Women Shift 15 Points In Favor Of Republicans In Congress

A crucial demographic is leaning more toward Republicans in the midterm elections. 

White suburban women voters have shifted their support to Republicans running for Congress by 15 percentage points, according to a new Wall Street Journal poll. The move demonstrates a 27-point move away from Democrats since the Journal’s poll from August. The group of white suburban women consists of 20% of the electorate.

In the recent months since the Supreme Court ruled to effectively overturn Roe v. Wade and return the decisions on abortion laws back to the states, Democrats have repeatedly pushed for abortion rights to be their rallying cry in the midterm elections, hoping to motivate women voters. However, it appears that the economy is taking center stage when it comes to the concerns of white women living in suburban areas. 

The poll revealed that 54% of white suburban women believe the country is already in a recession, and 74% believe the economy is going in the wrong direction, even though the Biden administration has repeatedly said the United States is not in a recession even though the economy fit the rule-of-thumb definition.

Republican pollster Tony Fabrizio carried out the poll with Democratic pollster John Anzalone.

“We’re talking about a collapse, if you will, in that group on the perceptions of the economy,” Fabrizio said.

In August, as revealed in the Journal’s most recent poll prior to this one, 43% believed the economy was in a recession, and 59% said it was going in the wrong direction. 

The recent poll showed that 34% of voters said their top priority is rising costs, with 28% listing democracy threats and only 16% saying the Supreme Court’s abortion decision was their main priority. The bloc also said they thought Republicans were better suited to deal with inflation and the economy than Democrats. 

The Journal noted that the white suburban women demographic was essential in Democrats’ congressional wins in 2018. The recent survey found that 85% of the voting bloc said they were very motivated to cast their vote in the upcoming elections.

In 2018, 50% of white women voted for Democrats, while 48% voted for Republicans, according to Pew Research. However, in preliminary exit polls for 2018, white women were split 49% for Republican and Democratic candidates. 59% of college-educated white women said they voted for the Democratic candidate, while 39% said they voted for the Republican. 

Former President Donald Trump and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton received around the same amount of overall suburban support in 2016, with Trump winning 47% and Clinton winning 45%. However, this shifted in the 2018 midterms. Democratic candidates running for Congress received 7 percentage points more of the suburban vote, at 52% to 45%.