For those of you who have been wondering how the votes broke among pet-owners in the 2024 presidential election, the Associated Press finally has answers.
In a survey of 120,000-plus voters, the majority of people with dogs reportedly went with president-elect Donald Trump, while cat-owners were divided between the GOP nominee and Democrat Kamala Harris.
According to the AP, Harris “decisively” won the cat ladies, with the support of about six in ten women who have cats but no dogs. Whether or not that’s a ballot-based rejoinder to the “childless cat ladies” remark by Trump’s running mate, J.D. Vance, isn’t immediately clear.
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On the whole, women with cats constituted a small group: Sole owners represented about 15 percent of the sample, and the number shrinks further when you break it down along gender lines. Just over half of men who only have cats reported to having opted for Trump.
Meanwhile, those who had dogs but no cats—roughly a third of the surveyed population—skewed heavily to the right. About 60 percent of men in this group and 50 percent of women voted for the Republican candidate.
As the AP notes, over the summer, many prominent Republicans, Trump and Vance included, circulated a baseless claim about Haitian immigrants eating their neighbors’ pet dogs and cats.
There wasn’t any truth to the conspiracy theory, and it’s unclear how the allegation—or the cat-lady comments—might have influenced people’s choices: The female cat-owners were largely registered Democrats before the election, while the dog-owners were, for the most part, already Republicans.
The data also seems to align with broader trends reflected in post-game voting breakdowns: In 2024, Trump made gains among women and expanded his existing popularity with men. In the end, this AP survey is probably another poll that doesn’t conclusively tell us much of anything. Add it to the pile!
