Black voters, who in record numbers turned out to support former President Obama's reelection in 2012, didn't repeat for Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton, recording their biggest-ever turnout drop off last year, according to a new analysis of Census data.

What's more, despite being the first female nominee and her focus on women's issues, slightly fewer women voted.

An analysis by the Pew Research Center said:



"The voter turnout rate among women was 63.3% in 2016, mostly unchanged from 63.7% in 2012. The rate increased among white women, to 66.8% in 2016 from 65.6% in 2012. But it decreased among black women (64.1% in 2016 versus 70.7% in 2012). Among Hispanic women, the turnout rate stayed flat: 50% in 2016, compared with 49.8% in 2012."

The black vote registered a seven-point decline, bested only by the 10-point decline in white voters between former President Clinton's two elections.

Pew said:

"The black voter turnout rate declined for the first time in 20 years in a presidential election, falling to 59.6% in 2016 after reaching a record-high 66.6% in 2012. The 7-percentage-point decline from the previous presidential election is the largest on record for blacks. (It's also the largest percentage-point decline among any racial or ethnic group since white voter turnout dropped from 70.2% in 1992 to 60.7% in 1996.) The number of black voters also declined, falling by about 765,000 to 16.4 million in 2016, representing a sharp reversal from 2012. With Barack Obama on the ballot that year, the black voter turnout rate surpassed that of whites for the first time. Among whites, the 65.3% turnout rate in 2016 represented a slight increase from 64.1% in 2012."

Paul Bedard, the Washington Examiner's "Washington Secrets" columnist, can be contacted at pbedard@washingtonexaminer.com