Digging around the list turns up both “duhs” and “huhs!” Ronalds (duh) support Trump at a rate of 61 percent. Janets and Nancys—names that were most popular in the 1930s—lean heavily Trump while Barbaras—also a popular Boomer name, though more in the 1940s—lean Biden. Sarahs—most popular in the ’80s and ’90s—back Biden, but Jennifers (huh!), a classic Gen X name, tend to be Trumpish. And spelling matters: Stevens are 2 percent more likely to vote Trump, while Stephens are 14 percent more likely to vote Biden; Deborahs are for Biden but Debras are for Trump. All of this, however, is nothing on the list’s biggest surprise: Trump is losing the Karen vote.
Women actually named Karen, a top 10 name in the 1950s, ’60s and early ’70s, lean Biden 60 to 40 percent. The skew for women who behave like Karens is presumably more in Trump’s favor—though maybe not! The Karen burst into the American consciousness in late May of this year with the Central Park Karen incident, when a white woman—real name Amy Cooper (Amys lean 57 percent Biden)—called the cops on a black bird watcher. The Karen, a woman who looks like Kate (Biden 54, Trump 37) Gosselin and asks to speak with the manager, was already an archetype in widespread circulation, but she’d been turbocharged by the pandemic. COVID Karens could lose it at a supermarket because they had to wear a mask, or lose it because someone else was not. Both versions of COVID Karen, like all Karens, share a conviction that they can mandate how other people behave. But the Central Park Karen tied the Karen specifically to racism and racial violence, to a type of white woman—previously called a Miss Ann (Biden 49, Trump 42), a Becky (Biden 53, Trump 33), a Permit Patty (Biden 51, Trump 44)—who marshals the power of the state to police black people minding their business.
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