Meet Our Voter Segments
Galvanize Action’s unique impact comes from getting the right messages to the right voters. In order to achieve this, we go beyond demographics to look at the traits and values associated with white women’s political behavior. Our modeling—done in partnership with Grow Progress—clusters voters who share similar traits. By taking the time to listen and understand what folks value, we’ve identified five distinct groups of white women voters*:
- Trump Conservatives
- Traditionalist Conservatives
- Uncertain Individualists
- Trusting Liberals
- Liberal Progressives
Removing those firmly committed to a political party—segment 1 (Trump Conservatives) and segment 5 (Liberal Progressives)—we focus on over 11 million women in the three moderate middle segments, who live in small town, rural, and suburban communities across the country. This is a key part of our strategy; we are not trying to connect with women who are not persuadable and we’re not trying to convince anyone to change their core beliefs. Rather, we’re identifying women who want progress on things like access to healthcare, the economy, reproductive freedom, and climate change so that we can support them to align their choices with their vision for this country.
Traditionalist Conservatives
This group of women are primarily middle-aged, highly-religious voters. In 2020, 60% of them voted for Trump, 25% for Biden, and 15% didn’t vote. They score higher than average on traits related to viewing those outside of their group as threatening and are susceptible to “us versus them” narratives designed to trigger fears. They place a high value on taking care of those in their group and folks who are similar to them. Unlike Trump Conservatives, this group doesn’t strongly believe conservative political narratives and are more neutral on the role of government. They do, however, tend to think government officials are corrupt and/or not very trustworthy.
Uncertain Individualists
This is our youngest voter segment and they tend to have a “you only live once” approach to life. In 2020, 33% of them voted for Trump, 33% for Biden, and 33% didn’t vote. When asked about various political issues, they frequently respond with “neither agree nor disagree,” indicating they either don’t know or don’t care all that much about the topic. Only 7% of this group say they are very confident in their political opinions. This group does not reliably vote for progress, but they also don’t hold values that would prevent them from doing so. The key is getting them to care and feel confident enough to align their actions with their beliefs.
Trusting Liberals
These are primarily older, less religious voters who generally feel good about themselves and where they’re at in life. In 2020, 15% of them voted for Trump, 70% for Biden, and 15% didn’t vote. Of note is this group’s high support of a larger role of government and how trusting they are: they trust scientists, they trust the government, and they think folks, in general, are trustworthy. While most women in this group reliably vote for progress, it’s important to continue to engage with them as their moderate status makes them susceptible to being targeted with disinformation and grievance-based narratives. Given their value of security, they may be particularly susceptible to narratives about crime and other topics designed to raise fear and uncertainty.
Learn more about our voter segments including the size of each segment and take a deeper dive into the traits and values they hold by visiting the “Voter Understanding” section of our Art & Science of Persuasion Playbook.
*Urban, strong partisans, and low turnout voters are not included in our segments.
