Poll: Democrat Men More Likely to see Harris’s Gender as a Liability than They Were with Clinton

Democrat men and women are more likely to see Vice President Kamala Harris’s gender as a liability compared to how they viewed Hillary Clinton eight years ago, an Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll found.

The finding, published Thursday, suggests that Democrats perceive an increased political bias against women in politics, although data encompassing Americans as a whole does not appear to support that perception.

Hillary Clinton, an election denier and two-time failed presidential candidate, pushed back on the Democrats’ apparently unfounded perception. “We now don’t just have one image of a person who happens to be a woman who ran for president, namely me,” Clinton told the AP. “We’ve got a broader view, and I think that’s all for the good.”

Clinton said she still feels “really optimistic” about Harris’s chances of defeating former President Donald Trump.

In contrast to the Democrats’ differing perceptions of Harris and Clinton, Americans as a whole are more likely to see Trump’s gender as an election asset.

The Associated Press’s Michelle L. Price and Linley Sanders reported on the poll’s findings:

A new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research indicates a shift in attitudes among U.S. adults in the time between the candidacies of the first and second female major-party nominees. The shift in attitudes is largely driven by Democrats — particularly Democratic men. About 3 in 10 Democratic men thought Clinton’s gender would hurt her “somewhat” or “a lot” prior to her loss to Trump. About half now say that about Harris.

Democratic women have also grown more likely to say being a woman could be a hurdle for a presidential candidate: About 4 in 10 Democratic women said Clinton’s gender would hurt her, and about half say that about Harris now. Republican men only shifted slightly, and Republican women’s views remained stable.

Americans are also more likely to see Trump’s gender as something that will help his chances of being elected. About 4 in 10 U.S. adults now say that being a man is something that will help him, up from around 3 in 10 when the same question was asked in an AP-NORC poll during his 2016 campaign.