Lena Dunham says her support for Hillary Clinton has unleashed 'hostility' from Sanders supporters

Actress Lena Dunham faces negative repercussions as a result of her support for Hillary Clinton.

(Image credit: Getty Images)

published 21 March 2016

Actress Lena Dunham said Sunday she has received more backlash for her outspoken support of Hillary Clinton from fellow Democrats than from Republicans.

"I have received more hostility for voting for a qualified female candidate than I have ever received anywhere from the American right wing," she said at a Clinton fundraiser. "The fact that other members of the Democratic Party have spoken to me like I was an ill-informed child for voting for someone who represents everything I think this country should be is outrageous."

Speaking at the same event, actress America Ferrera argued that "there is this narrative about young women not inspired by Hillary Clinton and that is just not the case." Exit polls from early primary states, however, suggest that narrative might be true. In New Hampshire and Iowa, Sanders won more than 8 in 10 youth votes, while a national Wall Street Journal/NBC/Marist College poll in February found Democratic women younger than 45 prefer Sanders by nearly a 30-point margin. More broadly, fully a third of Sanders supporters have said they will not back Clinton in the general election.

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Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.

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