Trump loses ground with LGBTQ voters

LGBTQ voters shifted away from President-elect Trump at the polls, casting their ballots overwhelmingly for Vice President Harris and in higher numbers than for President Biden in 2020, according to exit polls.

Eighty-six percent of voters self-identifying as lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender voted for Harris in Tuesday’s presidential election, according to an NBC News exit poll, a 22-point increase over 2020, when Biden won 64 percent of the LGBTQ vote against Trump.

Twelve percent of LGBTQ voters in the NBC News exit poll said they voted for President-elect Trump, a 15-point decline from 2020. 

Trump, who staged an improbable comeback in defeating Harris and retaking the White House early Wednesday, made anti-transgender messaging a central part of his campaign’s closing argument, spending tens of millions of dollars on advertising that went after transgender athletes and gender-affirming health care.

At rallies, Trump railed against what he called “transgender insanity” and said Harris’s past support for trans-inclusive policies made her extreme and a danger to the country. 

Trump’s insults extended to the broader LGBTQ community, most recently by referring to CNN anchor Anderson Cooper, who is gay, as “Allison Cooper.” 

Trump’s running mate, Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio), also amplified anti-transgender messages on the campaign trail. In an interview last week with podcast host Joe Rogan, Vance postulated that more young people are identifying as trans to better their chances of acceptance to elite colleges and universities, an unfounded claim that a former friend who is transgender called “outrageous” and “offensive.” 

During the same interview, Vance predicted he and Trump would win the “normal gay guy vote.” 

The GOP presidential ticket captured fewer than 20 percent of LGBTQ male voters, according to Wednesday’s NBC News exit poll, though that figure also includes bisexual and transgender men. Just 8 percent of LGBTQ female voters cast their ballots for Trump. 

In a Fox News exit poll, 20 percent of LGBTQ voters said they voted for Trump, a substantially larger number than the NBC News figure but still fewer than 2020. Seventy-eight percent said they voted for Harris, according to Fox News. 

Roughly 7.6 percent of U.S. adults identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer or something “other than heterosexual,” a March Gallup poll found, including more than 20 percent of Gen Z.