Rand Paul's support among Republican men plummets
Presidential candidate Rand Paul has a new problem with male voters. You can add that to his problem with women voters.
A stated that the Kentucky senator was tied with some of his male counterparts 鈥� Scott Walker, Marco Rubio, and Jeb Bush 鈥� at 13 percent overall among Republican voters. But he was the choice of a mere 2 percent of Republican women.
According to a released on Wednesday, Mr. Paul鈥檚 support among women hasn鈥檛 budged. (He is still the choice of 2 percent.) But now, he is the choice of only 5 percent of Republican men.
It might have something to do with broader problems in Paul鈥檚 campaign. PurplePAC, one of the three super political action committees supporting Paul, recently cut off funding.
Ed Crane, a co-founder of the Cato Institute think tank, , 鈥淚鈥檝e stopped raising money for him until I see the campaign correct its problems. I wasn鈥檛 going to raise money to spend on a futile crusade.鈥�
According to Mr. Crane, Paul鈥檚 libertarian views have 鈥渄isappeared.鈥�
Today, Libertarians like Brett Pojunis, chairman of the Nevada Libertarian Party, claim Paul uses the word libertarian as 鈥�," according to the Daily Beast.
His longer-term problems with female voters might stem from how he is perceived to see women, writes the . During an interviewing with CNBC鈥檚 Kelly Evans, Paul told her to 鈥淐alm down a bit here,鈥� putting his finger to his lips to shush her.
But a deeper problem could be his very connection with libertarianism.
According to a , men are twice as likely as women to be libertarians (with only 1 in 10 Americans overall describing themselves as libertarians). The roster on the shows two women among the 22 national and regional leaders.
The outward face of libertarianism can sometimes be caustic toward women. Julie Borowski, who styles herself as 鈥淭okenLibertarianGirl,鈥� says on a YouTube video: 鈥�. Women tend to be more concerned with being socially accepted and fitting in with their peers. They don鈥檛 want to be associated with something that鈥檚 outside the mainstream.鈥澛�
But libertarian Bonnie Kristian, who is a columnist at The Week and Rare, says the problem isn鈥檛 women-specific. 鈥�. But you know what? Most men aren鈥檛 either. It is incumbent on us to change both these facts.鈥�
鈥淪ince the 2008 run, the liberty movement has significantly diversified demographically,鈥� Ms. Kristian writes in an e-mail to the Monitor. 鈥淎ttending a libertarian event in 2008 or 2009 meant there was a real chance I鈥檇 be the only woman there 鈥� or, if it was a larger function, women would at least be significantly outnumbered. Now, that鈥檚 no longer the case. While there鈥檚 still some gender imbalance, there are many more libertarian woman than ever before.鈥�
