In his final campaign push, Colorado Democrat Sen. Mark Udall is giving over an entire day to rallies across the state featuring the head of Planned Parenthood, Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and the wives of several Democrat politicians. Hillary Clinton will deliver the coda on Tuesday.
The world may be ravaged by conflict, pandemics and teetering economies, but Udall’s final appeal to voters will channel his inner-Sappho and raise the roof with a brash “girlapalooza.” Such is the dependence of the modern Democrat party on female voters.
Unfortunately for Democrats, female voters are increasingly resistant to its political pandering. In its endorsement of GOP candidate Cory Gardner, the left-leaning Denver Post slammed Udall’s maniacal focus on issues like abortion and birth control. “Udall is trying to frighten voters rather than inspire them with a hopeful vision,” the editors wrote. “His obnoxious one-issue campaign is an insult to those he seeks to convince.”
Since at least 2008, Democrats have created a fictional GOP “war on women” and drafted themselves as its champion defenders. Never mind that most of these issues were decided decades ago and aren’t under any real policy consideration anywhere. The media has been eager to echo the Democrat war cries as a cudgel against Republicans. In a world of existential crises, however, even the liberal Denver Post is growing tired of playing along.
According to the most recent polling, Udall only leads Gardner by 9 points among female voters. That slim margin is more than offset by the gaping 19-point deficit he suffers among men. In 2010, when Dem Sen. Mike Bennett won a close election, his numbers were almost the reverse. He led among women by 17 and trailed men by just 10 points.
This isn’t just a Rocky Mountain phenomenon. Democrat Senate candidates across the country are experience rapidly declining returns from their “war on women” rhetoric. Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell trails women in KY by just a couple points. Alaska Democrat Mark Begich trails among women by around 7 points.
Without a heavy female turnout and a lopsided advantage, many Democrat candidates will go down to defeat in two weeks.
A significant factor in the Democrats declining advantage among women is the uncomfortable fact that there really isn’t much of a gender gap. Despite the constant haranguing of the media and the left, the real gap is a marriage gap.
Obama beat Romney in 2012 by 11 points among women. Married women, however, preferred Romney by 7 points. Married men preferred Romney by a staggering 22 points, while single men voted for Obama by a 16 point margin. (Race also obscures the alleged gap. White women, regardless of marital status voted for Romney over Obama by 14 points.)
So, even election results show that the “war on women” is a myth. It is just as plausible, and meaningful, to wonder about the Democrats’ “war on marriage.” The single biggest determinant in how someone votes is their marital status, not their gender.
In elections about small things, with no real overarching issues imposing themselves on the electorate, Democrats can get away with this media-driven pandering. At the margins, enough people may respond to these messages to make the difference in very close contests.
Even very big existential issues intrude on the public, however, “war on women” rhetoric and the alleged “gender gap” are exposed for the charade they are.
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