Is Trump Driving Women Away From the GOP for Good? Female voters have slowly drifted away from GOP
Is Trump Driving Women Away From the GOP for Good?
Female voters have slowly drifted away from the Republican Party for decades. Under Donald Trump, that trend has accelerated
resident Donald Trump has historically low favorability among women, with the Pew Research Center now reporting that 63 percent of women disapprove of how he is doing his jobcompared with 30 percent who approve. That might not be surprising, given the range of things that Trump has said and done that might be seen as offensive to women. Theres the famous Access Hollywood tape that gave rise to thousands of pussy hats, the 22 women who have publicly accused him of sexual harassment and assault, and the hush money his personal lawyer has admitted to paying to cover up marital indiscretions. There is Trumps tendency to insult women, from Carly Fiorina to Megyn Kelly to Mika Brzezinski. Most recently, there was his rally in Mississippi, during which the president mocked Dr. Christine Blasey Fords allegations that Brett Kavanaugh, who has since been confirmed to the Supreme Court, had sexually assaulted her when they were teenagers.
Trumps election and performance in office have clearly pushed independent and Democratic women into action, resulting in record numbers of women running for office, and surges of women involved in local political organizing for the first time. But what about Republican women? Is it possible that Trumpand the Republican politicians who enable himare not just alienating left-leaning women, but are permanently damaging the GOPs female ranks, driving some splintering portion of women away for good?
Republican women still overwhelmingly support the president84 percent of them, according to a POLITICO/Morning Consult poll this week. But that statistic overlooks a broader trend: Fewer and fewer American women identify as Republicans, and that slow migration is speeding up under Trump. My conversations with pollsters, political scientists and a number of women across the country who have recently rejected their lifelong Republicans identities suggested the sameand illuminate why this moment in American politics might prove a breaking point for women in the GOP. According to pollsters on both sides of the aisle, that doesnt bode well for the Republican Party either in this falls midtermswhich are likely to bring a record gap between how men and women voteor for the partys long-term future.
https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2018/10/08/donald-trump-women-gop-221080