The gender gap between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris voters in the 2024 presidential race is the largest in U.S. history, new poll finds; Andy Beshear faces scrutiny on abortion as possible VP pick
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**Article transcript:**

&gt;A slew of national and battleground state polls since President Joe Biden's withdrawal from the 2024 race find a much closer contest than we saw after his dismal debate performance.  
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&gt;But these polls reveal another important dynamic: an enormous gender gap between former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris — in some cases bigger than the one in 2016 and 2020.  
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&gt;Take the recent New York Times/Siena College poll. Harris holds a 14-point lead over Trump among likely female voters (55% to 41%), while Trump holds a 17-point lead among men (56% to 39%). That’s a net 31-point gender gap.  
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&gt;It's even bigger in the latest Quinnipiac University poll, where women are breaking for Harris by 16 points (56% to 40%) and men are siding with Trump by 23 points (60% to 37%). *(Note: The Quinnipiac poll was conducted before and after Biden exited the 2024 race.)* That’s a whopping 39-point gender gap.  
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&gt;Compare that to the race between Trump and Hillary Clinton in 2016, when the NBC News exit poll found the net gender gap at 24 points. In the exit poll after the 2020 Biden-Trump contest, that figure stood at 23 points.  
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&gt;Now, other recent surveys show a smaller gender gap. CNN's national poll had it at 16 points between Harris and Trump, and one from NPR/PBS/Marist was a mere 4 points.  
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&gt;And remember, these kinds of demographic deep dives have larger margins of error — so numbers are bound to fluctuate from poll to poll.  
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&gt;But in general, these new polls underscore how a widening gender gap could be a significant factor in the new Harris-Trump race — as well as how Trump's advantage among men seems larger than Harris' edge among women.  
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&gt;**Veepstakes: Beshear's abortion record gets fresh scrutiny**  
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&gt;One of Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear's strengths in the race to become Harris' running mate is that he could appeal to centrist voters as a Democrat who won re-election in a state that Donald Trump carried by more than 20 percentage points.  
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&gt;Beshear won his 2023 campaign, in part, by leaning into his support for abortion rights in a state where the procedure is almost entirely banned. Yet for some reproductive rights advocates in Kentucky, Beshear has not done enough on an issue that is critical for the party nationally — which could factor into his chances of joining the presidential ticket.  
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&gt;"The low bar here doesn't help him," said Savannah Trebuna, the abortion fund director at Kentucky Health Justice Network, a Louisville-based reproductive rights organization, referring to the expectations for a Democratic governor in a red state.  
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&gt;"Yes, he's doing better than a conservative would, and I'm thankful for that," she continued. "But I worry about how that record will look on a national stage."  
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&gt;Critics point to Beshear's choice of a self-described "personally pro-life" Democrat, Jacqueline Coleman, to be his lieutenant governor; his focus on rare exceptions when talking about abortion; and that his administration has avoided working closely with reproductive rights groups in the state.  
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&gt;During his first gubernatorial campaign in 2019, Beshear's allies clashed behind the scenes with reproductive rights groups over what message to run in ads, with Beshear's team wanting to focus less on abortion and more on the unpopular Republican incumbent, according to a source involved in the effort.  
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&gt;The question is whether Beshear's approach would serve as a liability by muddling Democrats' message, or as a benefit by having a governor who has won on the issue in a red state.  
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&gt;"I think everybody's looking for the perfect candidate. There is no such thing," said former Rep. John Yarmuth, D-Ky. "Voters who are persuadable at this point are not issue voters. If you're an issue voter, you've already made up your mind. They're more visceral voters, and that's why I think Andy's got a great strength — because he reeks of empathy."
assistant
Anyone think it’s Shapiro yet? It’s either him or Walz to me so far.
user
I think it'll either be Walz or Kelly. Though, there was a rumor that Beshear's security detail has been beefed up recently. But take that with a pinch of salt.
assistant