Is Trump turning the GOP into the 'Man Party'?
Is Donald Trump turning the GOP into the 鈥淢an Party鈥�?
OK, this question is a bit exaggerated, as Mr. Trump does have female supporters. Republican women by the thousands won鈥檛 be re-registering as Democrats if he鈥檚 the party鈥檚 presidential nominee.
But The Donald鈥檚 image among women in general, and Republican women in particular, is historically bad and getting worse. The GOP is already struggling to attract minority voters. Trump threatens to layer an unprecedented gender gap onto this racial divide.
For instance, in a new , 47 percent of Republican female voters agreed that they 鈥渃ould not imagine themselves voting for Trump.鈥� In other words, almost half the women in Trump鈥檚 own party don鈥檛 like him. A lot.
Among women as a whole, his numbers are worse. Seventy-five percent of female voters now have an unfavorable view of Trump, according to a recent . That鈥檚 up from 64 percent in November.
Yes, favorable/unfavorable ratings can bounce around and aren鈥檛 necessarily indicative of voting patterns. But when you鈥檙e disliked by three-quarters of an entire gender, that鈥檚 ... amazing. It鈥檚 an electoral problem beyond yuugge. No wonder the Republican Party establishment appears to be in a state of panic.
How would this play out if the general election were today? According to a new , Trump and Hillary Clinton would tie among male voters, 43 to 43 percent. Trump would lose women 53 to 34 percent (!) and lose overall by 11 percentage points.
So in other words, President Hillary Clinton.
By way of contrast, Mitt Romney lost women by 12 percentage points in 2012, according to Gallup data. In the poll cited above, Trump loses them by 19 points.
Yet Trump does not seem to be interested in addressing this gender gap. He instead continues to campaign as if the American electorate were composed of Howard Stern listeners. How else to explain the bizarre battle between Trump and Ted Cruz over wives?
True, it was started by a super PAC aligned with Senator Cruz, which circulated an ad with a risqu茅 photo of Trump鈥檚 wife, Melania, on Facebook prior to this week鈥檚 Utah primary.
But Trump upped the ante, as he often does. He threatened to reveal unspecified information about Cruz鈥檚 wife, Heidi. Then he retweeted a photo that contrasted an unflattering image of Heidi Cruz with that of former model Melania Trump.
鈥淭he images are worth a thousand words,鈥� the caption said.
Given the ratio of supermodels to non-supermodels in the female population, this seems a great way to lose more women鈥檚 votes. It鈥檚 perhaps indicative that the Cruz-supportive super PAC that started the whole thing says it鈥檚 delighted with Trump鈥檚 reaction.
鈥淥bviously, we have no regrets about running the ad, and may even run some more over-the-top ones we鈥檝e been considering, mostly just to annoy Trump,鈥� said Make America Awesome cofounder Liz Mair on Friday.
