Midterm Exit Polls: Surprising Answers on Abortion, Biden, and Trump

The midterm post-mortem is still happening and several races are yet to be decided as of now but we’re beginning to learn more about what type of voter came out last week and why things turned out the way they did. While exit polls, where voters are asked how and why they voted after they vote, are often bad at predicting or foretelling the outcome on election night, they do offer a glimpse into what actual voters think rather than randomly selected poll respondents that may or may not represent who shows up on Election Day.

From the onset of last Tuesday, it seems that the “submerged Trump voter” was much less a force than the “submerged abortion voter” when it came to deciding some tight races. As it turns out, many voters who were motivated by abortion may have been afraid to share those views which speaks to the awkward morality of the issue. You’d prefer to say you’re motivated by inflation, the economy, or even climate change rather than a desire to keep abortion legal.

Here are five things collected by The Hill to demonstrate what voters were thinking on Election Day when they rendered a “status quo” verdict on control of the federal government and several state houses: