President Donald Trump is expected to become president for a second time in a historic comeback. There are some important insights into how the country’s politics have changed during three consecutive elections with Trump on the ballot.

CNN’s 2016, 2020 and 2024 exit poll results show how a sour economy held Vice President Kamala Harris back, and how she failed to increase support among women even though there was a rise in support for abortion rights, and how Latino men in particular were attracted to Trump.

CNN’s exit polls for the 2024 general election include interviews with thousands of voters, both those who cast ballots on Election Day and those who voted early or absentee. That scope makes them a powerful tool for understanding the demographic profile and political views of voters in this year’s elections. And their findings will ultimately be weighed against the ultimate benchmark: the results of the election itself. Yet exit polls are still polls, with a margin for error, meaning they are most useful when treated as estimates, not precise measurements. This is especially true before the exit poll figures are adjusted to the final election results.

The 2024 exit poll data is continuously updated and is automatically displayed in the graphs below.

Harris’ lead among women this year did not surpass that of President Joe Biden or former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, a troubling sign for the vice president as she seeks to mobilize female voters on the issue of abortion. Trump maintained a lead among men.

Latino voters, and men in particular, have been moving toward Trump since 2016. This year, for the first time, Latino men broke in his direction. Biden won their support by 23 points in 2020 and Trump won them in 2024. Latina women still favored Harris, but by smaller margins than they supported Clinton or Biden.

Harris maintained strong leads among black men and women. Trump’s lead among white men shrank.

White voters without a college degree have long represented Trump’s support, something that has remained constant. There has been a shift among white, college-educated voters. They narrowly supported Trump in 2016, but Harris won them in 2024, a split driven by both men and women. Harris won by about 15 points over white women with college degrees — an improvement over both Biden and Clinton. Meanwhile, Harris lost some support among voters of color of all education levels.

Democrats lost some support among the youngest voters, a group that voted for them overwhelmingly. But Harris also made gains among the oldest voters, a group that traditionally leans Republican. It’s an interesting shift.

Although Trump lost some support in rural areas in 2020, he returned there in full force in 2024. Cities remained solidly democratic. The suburbs remained the evenly divided battleground that decided the elections.

Voters in 2020 were about evenly split on whether the economy was in good shape or not, something incredible considering the raging pandemic that impacted Americans’ lives that year. In 2024, about two-thirds of voters said the economy was in bad shape. That shift in sentiment benefited Trump.

It makes sense that partisans would say their position has or has not improved depending on whether the person they support is in the White House. This year there is a big shift. In 2020, only about a fifth of voters said they were doing worse than four years earlier. This year, nearly half of voters say they are doing worse than four years ago. Trump won them overwhelmingly.

One story these graphs don’t fully tell is how the conversation about abortion has changed. In 2016, Roe v. Wade guaranteed every American woman a constitutional right to an abortion. In 2024, that federal right will be gone, taken away by a conservative majority that helped Trump sit on the Supreme Court. In 2020, about half of Americans said abortion should be legal in all or most cases. By 2024, about two-thirds of Americans believe abortion should be legal in all or most cases. But they did not necessarily link that support to their vote for president. About half of people who believe abortion should be legal in most cases supported Trump.

Liberals and conservatives have retreated even further into their partisan corners during the Trump years. Moderates still favored the Democratic candidate in 2024, but by a smaller margin than in 2020.

People who say they cast their votes more in favor of their chosen candidate than against their opponent are divided on Trump, a signal of his popularity among his supporters. Those more motivated by opposition were largely in Harris’ camp. Overall, about three-quarters of voters said they voted mainly to support their candidate, not to oppose their rival.

Trump’s campaign strategy was built around motivating low-propensity voters who typically do not participate in the political process. That paid off, as there was a dramatic change between 2020, when Biden won freshman voters, and 2024, when Trump won them. But there is important context in the fact that a smaller share of voters said they would cast their first vote in 2024 than in 2020.