Trump’s Gender Gap Risks Becoming Chasm, Adding to Campaign Woes
- Numerous women spoke at convention to soften Trump’s image
- Data show focus on ‘housewives,’ security won’t broaden base
Republicans pulled out all the stops at their convention to convince female voters that President Donald Trump cares about their interests, even pledging to put a woman on the moon with polls showing he has lost ground with women as their concerns about him intensify.
The gender gap that Trump barely overcame to win in 2016 has grown wider. Polling this summer shows that female voters not only object to his persona, but also to his preference for a heavy, militaristic response to racial-justice protesters.
While Republicans traditionally face a gender gap in presidential elections, “the magnitude of that difference is larger this time with Trump,” said Susan Carroll, a senior scholar at the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University. “He definitely has quite a problem with women voters -- and any Republican has some problem with women voters relative to men -- but he has a much bigger problem.”