--- title: Majority of 'Karens' Voting for Biden: NYT Polling Data description: Around 60% of women named Karen are voting for Joe Biden in the 2020 election, according to a New York 'Times' polling data canonical: https://time.com/5906491/karens-joe-biden-new-york-times-poll-database/ author: Megan McCluskey article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2020-11-02T21:20:59.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-24T09:23:10.821Z article:section: Politics og:title: Majority of 'Karens' Voting for Biden: NYT Polling Data og:description: Sorting its polling data by the most common first names of respondences, NYT found Barbaras, Lisas and Patricias are also more likely to back blue og:url: https://time.com/5906491/karens-joe-biden-new-york-times-poll-database/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb1304e429370fa5b/698a13b3457a52e2f6d648f7/Joe-Biden-Karens.jpg?branch=production&width=594&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 594 og:image:height: 334 og:image:alt: Joe-Biden-Karens og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Majority of 'Karens' Voting for Biden: NYT Polling Data twitter:description: Sorting its polling data by the most common first names of respondences, NYT found Barbaras, Lisas and Patricias are also more likely to back blue twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb1304e429370fa5b/698a13b3457a52e2f6d648f7/Joe-Biden-Karens.jpg?branch=production&width=594&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Majority of 'Karens' Voting for Joe Biden in 2020 Election, New York _Times_ Polling Data Finds > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters.  by [Megan McCluskey](https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/)  ## Megan McCluskey Staff Writer Nov 2, 2020 9:20 PM UTC  Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden speaks at a get-out-the-vote drive-in rally at Cleveland Burke Lakefront Airport in Cleveland, Ohio on November 02, 2020. Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden speaks at a get-out-the-vote drive-in rally at Cleveland Burke Lakefront Airport in Cleveland, Ohio on November 02, 2020.Drew Angerer—Getty Images  by [Megan McCluskey](https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/)  ## Megan McCluskey Staff Writer Nov 2, 2020 9:20 PM UTC Around 60% of people named [Karen](https://time.com/5857023/karen-meme-history-meaning/) are voting for [Joe Biden](https://time.com/5905502/biden-covid-19-plan/) in the [2020 election](https://time.com/5905986/america-is-on-edge-as-election-day-nears/), according to a [collection of data gathered by the New York _Times_ and Siena College](https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/02/briefing/the-2020-vote-preferences-of-102-common-first-names.html). After polling more than 17,000 likely voters in 18 battleground states since September, the _Times_ decided to sort the accumulated data based on the most common first names and find any trends that the database provided. They sorted the 10 most common male names and the 10 most common female names and graphed how the data showed those polled planned to vote. This approach found that the majority of people named Karen are planning to vote for Biden over President Donald Trump. Of the top 10 most common female names, Karens were joined by Barbaras, Lisas, Patricias, Elizabeths, Susans and Marys in favoring the Democratic presidential nominee, while the data suggested Nancys, Jennifers and Lindas tended to back Trump. > [](https://twitter.com/alex%5Fabads/status/1323258603508293632) Stemming from the popular [“Can I speak to a manager?”](https://time.com/5683398/tropical-storm-karen-memes/) meme, the name Karen has become a pejorative slang term for entitled, and often racist, middle-aged white women who engage in flagrant displays of privilege. But the _Times’_ Karen findings reportedly have more to do with age than anything else. “This is an age thing, not a meme thing,” [the _Times_ said](https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/11/02/us/elections/02names-polls.html). “Karens are a cross section of women ages 40 and up. The name entered the top 20 in 1941 and stayed there through 1971.” Over the past year, the Karen moniker has been given to a number of white women who went viral after videos of their inappropriate or dangerous behavior surfaced online. Some notable examples include [Amy Cooper](https://time.com/5899879/amy-cooper-second-911-call-assault/), the “Central Park Karen” who called the police on a birdwatching Black man who asked her to leash her dog in a part of New York’s Central Park that required it, and [Lisa Alexander](https://time.com/5853442/san-francisco-white-couple-police-black-lives-matter-viral-video/), the “San Francisco Karen” who confronted a man who identifies as a person of color for writing “Black Lives Matter” in chalk on the front of his own home. Last September, [Tropical Storm Karen](https://time.com/5683398/tropical-storm-karen-memes/) even inspired the internet to make memes poking fun at the storm’s name. “This Forecast Cone is an actual visual representation of the rising anger of everyone in line behind [#Karen](https://twitter.com/hashtag/Karen?src=hashtag%5Fclick) as she argues with the manager because her coupons are not working,” [one Twitter user wrote](https://twitter.com/JWButta/status/1175737272844599296). > [](https://twitter.com/JWButta/status/1175737272844599296) The _Times_ also provided [a searchable graph](https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/02/briefing/the-2020-vote-preferences-of-102-common-first-names.html) of the 102 most common names and the reported voting preference, of those who responded to its recent polling. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5906491/karens-joe-biden-new-york-times-poll-database/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5906491/karens-joe-biden-new-york-times-poll-database/"},"headline":"Majority of 'Karens' Voting for Joe Biden in 2020 Election, New York Times Polling Data Finds","datePublished":"2020-11-02T21:20:59.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-24T09:23:10.821Z","description":"Sorting its polling data by the most common first names of respondences, NYT found Barbaras, Lisas and Patricias are also more likely to back blue","url":"https://time.com/5906491/karens-joe-biden-new-york-times-poll-database/","keywords":["2020 Election","Brief"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb1304e429370fa5b/698a13b3457a52e2f6d648f7/Joe-Biden-Karens.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Megan McCluskey","jobTitle":"Staff Writer","url":"https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb1304e429370fa5b/698a13b3457a52e2f6d648f7/Joe-Biden-Karens.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Joe-Biden-Karens","caption":"Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden speaks at a get-out-the-vote drive-in rally at Cleveland Burke Lakefront Airport in Cleveland, Ohio on November 02, 2020.","creditText":"Drew Angerer—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/2020-election/","name":"2020 Election"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5906491/karens-joe-biden-new-york-times-poll-database/","name":"Majority of 'Karens' Voting for Joe Biden in 2020 Election, New York Times Polling Data Finds"}}]}] ```