Several conservative women in Midwestern states admitted to voting differently from the Trump-supporting men in their lives and is keeping it a secret.
In the final days of the campaign Democrats have been urging conservative women to vote their conscience without telling anyone.
Democratic groups like Vote Common Good, have enlisted the help of Oscar winner Julia Roberts, who narrated an ad encouraging conservative-leaning women to vote for Kamala Harris regardless of their husbands’ opinion.
“In the one place in America where women still have a right to choose, you can vote any way you want, and no one will ever know,” Roberts said. “Remember, what happens in the booth stays in the booth. Vote Harris/Walz.”
The message appears to be resonating with conservative women voters in the Midwest who admitted to NPR that they secretly voted or plan to vote for Harris.
T, a Wisconsin woman in her 60s told NPR that she mailed her absentee ballot from another relative’s home to avoid an argument with her husband over her support for Harris.
“It’s not that he would ever stop me or anything, it’s just I just can’t deal with that animosity,” T, a lifelong Republican who describes Trump as a “buffoon” and “misogynistic” said.
“My husband will say it’s just what the media has fed me,” T added. “And I’m saying uh-uh. I watched it with my own two eyes. I listened to it.”
Another woman, only identified by her first name initial K, out of fear of losing her job, told NPR that she is voting for Harris and hasn’t told most of her family, including her husband, about her decision.
“He assumes I’m voting Republican. I just listen to him talk about his views, and I just nod my head and go uh huh,” she said. “And I’m thinking, yeah and my nieces have less bodily autonomy and rights at their ages than I had.”
Meanwhile, a 35-year-old Illinois woman who wanted to be identified as A to avoid backlash from her religious community, told NPR that she voted for Trump in 2016 and 2020 but is supporting Harris in 2024.
A says she thought about her daughters when she was making her decision. But is keeping her vote a secret from her boyfriend and staunch Republican father.
“And as I was filling in that rectangle it was like, ‘Hell yeah, girl. You did something so powerful for yourself, and for a lot of women,” she said.
Eduardo Gamarra, a political scientist at Florida International University told NPR that keeping a vote secret is not new, but this cycle he’s seeing more women admit that they’re secretly backing Harris in focus groups.
Gamarra argued that the shift is “largely being driven by abortion.”
Polls have shown women breaking heavily for Harris, further widening the gender gap in the election.
A recent USA Today/Suffolk University poll found that women resoundingly back Harris over Trump, 53% to 36%.
An ABC News/Ipsos poll found Harris has an 11 percentage point advantage over Trump among women. Women registered as independent were supporting Harris by 18 percentage points and women under 30 were going for the vice president by 40-plus points.
A surprising poll from Iowa’s most accurate pollster released on Saturday shows Harris leading Trump by 3 points in the state, which the former president won twice, due to her support among women.
Harris leads Trump by 28 points among independent women voters in Iowa and 35 points among women voters age 65 and over, according to the Des Moines Register/Mediacom poll.
