Associated Press: Cat Owners Voted for Kamala Harris, Dog Owners for Donald Trump

The role of pets in electoral competitions is rarely highlighted, but the recent presidential election in the United States was exceptional in this regard. When J.D. Vance was nominated as Donald Trump's vice-presidential candidate, many recalled his 2021 interview in which he referred to some prominent Democratic supporters as 'childless women who love cats.' He later emphasized that this was merely a 'humorous explanation,' but his critics repeatedly mocked him for using such a description. Eventually, when Taylor Swift, the American pop music star, endorsed Kamala Harris's candidacy, she signed her statement with the title 'childless woman who loves cats,' which was seen as a jab at J.D. Vance. According to a survey report from the Associated Press, it has been revealed that Kamala Harris actually received more votes among cat-owning women. The results of this survey, which examined the votes of 120,000 voters in the recent U.S. presidential election, show that about six out of ten women who owned cats and did not own dogs voted for Kamala Harris. However, this success for Kamala Harris was not mirrored among cat-owning men; conversely, the number of men who only own cats and voted for Donald Trump is slightly higher. The Associated Press noted that it is impossible to quantify how much J.D. Vance's comments influenced Harris's success among women who have cats at home; however, previous results from the same polling service indicate that only four out of ten women who have cats support the Republican Party. The issue of dogs also emerged in the recent U.S. presidential election. Donald Trump made a controversial claim during one of his campaign speeches that immigrants in Ohio steal and eat pet dogs and cats. The Associated Press states that the block of dog owners was a powerful force in the recent election, with Trump receiving 60% of the votes from men and half of the votes from women who accepted dogs as their pets. However, interestingly, neither of the two presidential candidates in the recent election owns a pet. Donald Trump is also the first U.S. president in over a hundred years to enter the White House without a dog or any other pet. Before him, William McKinley, who served as president from 1897 to 1901, was the last person to enter the White House without a dog, although he did bring several cats, a parrot, and even a rooster with him.