A new United Technologies/National Journal Congressional Connection Poll has found that the Republican Party is continuing to lose women voters. As I’ve noted here (and many other non-conservatives have noted) forget any rebranding. It’s over. What we are see is a branding reaffirmation — a hardening of previous perceptions of the GOP. And that clearly is not helping Republicans with women voters:
The Republican Party’s effort to rebrand itself with women since losing the 2012 presidential race and seats in Congress is falling short, a new United Technologies/National Journal Congressional Connection Poll has found.
Only 14 percent of women said the Republican Party had moved closer to their perspective. More than twice as many women, 33 percent, said the party had drifted further from them. A plurality, 46 percent, saw no change.
That’s an extremely bad number for the GOP in terms of national elections. And it isn’t good news in terms of the impact in local elections, either, The National Journal points out:
The dangers for the GOP of losing women’s support are playing out in the Virginia gubernatorial race, where Democratic nominee Terry McAuliffe has taken the lead over Republican Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, almost entirely by opening up a lead among female voters.
And even worse news: Republicans are using younger generations:
In the new poll, the results for the GOP are even more ominous among young women. Only 11 percent of women younger than 50 said the party had moved closer to them. In contrast, 29 percent said the GOP had moved further away.
And Republicans have even lost ground they made up in 2012:
College-educated white women were particularly likely (45 percent) to say the Republican Party was now further from their views. That is especially significant because Republicans had made critical gains among that demographic in the 2012 election cycle. President Obama’s support among college-educated white women dropped by 6 percentage points, from 52 percent to 46 percent, between the 2008 and 2012 elections, according to national exit polls
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And here’s the capper which underscores an important point:
Of those women who said the Republican Party had moved away from them, nearly three in five, 59 percent, said it was because the GOP had become “too conservative.” Only 33 percent said the party was further from them because it wasn’t conservative enough.
But you’d never think this stat was possible if you watched Fox News, read conservative websites or listened to conservative talk. They often contend the real problem is that Republicans aren’t conservative enough, or that their policies enjoy widespread support. That’s why they call it an echo chamber: people will only go to sites they agree with before they read anything and only watch television stations that slant things their way.
But the reality is:
The Republican Party is continuing to lose support among women voters — and particularly among the younger voters who’ll determine the future shape of this nation.
Will the government shut down or a debt default help?
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.