Women think Clinton won the debate, and men think Trump did

(Image credit: AP Photo/John Locher)

The second presidential debate is turning out to be much harder to call a winner in than the first. Republican pollster Frank Luntz, for one, has named Donald Trump the unequivocal winner of the debate based on the results from his focus group: "I may have made a mistake in writing off Trump. After talking with voters tonight, he's back in this race," Luntz tweeted. Many other early polls showed Hillary Clinton as the winner, including CNN/ORC, which named her the victor 57 percent to Trump's 34 percent.

Interestingly, a YouGov poll, which sampled 812 registered voters, showed a distinct gender gap in its results. Women thought Clinton won the debate with a margin of 50 percent to 38 percent, while men thought Trump was the winner 46 percent to 43 percent.

A significant portion of the debate focused on the release of audio from 11 years ago that caught Trump engaging in a lewd conversation about his pursuit of women. Trump dismissed his comments as "locker room talk," and hit Clinton over accusations of her husband's own alleged sexual misconduct.

The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Overall, YouGov showed Clinton as the winner of the debate, 47 percent to 42 percent. The margin of error in the poll is plus or minus 3.9 percent.

Explore More

Jeva Lange was the executive editor at TheWeek.com. She formerly served as The Week's deputy editor and culture critic. She is also a contributor to Screen Slate, and her writing has appeared in The New York Daily News, The Awl, Vice, and Gothamist, among other publications. Jeva lives in New York City. Follow her on Twitter.