Polling Amongst Women Ahead Of Midterms Has Democrats Cheering

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According to new CBS/ YouGov polling, Democrats were 10 percent ahead of Republicans with women from a pool of likely voters when respondents were asked for their party choice in the upcoming Congressional elections. Dems had 49 percent, while Republicans had 39 percent.

“Women have at best a mixed set of descriptions for Democrats right now, but use a lot of negative descriptions for Republicans,” CBS adds amid an accompanying set of new polling data on the midterms.

More women whose poll responses were reported on by CBS indicated a belief Democrats were more “caring” and “reasonable” than Republicans compared to those saying the opposite, and those are fairly foundational traits that could significantly impact voters’ decision-making processes this year. More women responding in the survey data from CBS put Republicans higher on effectiveness than Democrats, but there’s a dramatic, double-digit gap between women who said a GOP-controlled Congress would make conditions “better for women” and women who indicated a belief the opposite would occur. A full half of the women from a pool of registered voters reflected by the data said GOP control in Congress would make things “worse for women.” Meanwhile, 26 percent said GOP Congressional control would make conditions “better for women,” and 23 percent said they believed there’d be no change.

The new polling from CBS focuses on the race for control of the House. Based on polling evidently across the midterms season involving tens of thousands of voters, CBS estimated Republicans would eke out a narrow majority in the House if the midterm elections were suddenly held. The early Monday numbers from CBS guessed Republicans would win 230 seats in the chamber while Dems held 205, with a margin of error of 12 seats. A full 218 seats are required for control in the chamber, and Democrats’ current leading margin in the House is thin. There are 220 Dems currently in the House, with one vacancy in a Dem-leaning seat. Meanwhile, among women specifically under 50 who are registered to vote, 67 percent characterized the Republican Party as “extreme,” and 57 percent called it “hateful” — so it’s clear any potential right-wing desperation for higher favorability levels among women isn’t exactly panning out.

“Suburban women, will you please like me?” Trump said at a pre-2020 election rally in Pennsylvania. His sexism and dismissiveness towards basic women’s rights issues certainly didn’t provide a compelling reason for them to do so.

Among women 50 and over who are registered to vote, thin majorities also called the GOP extreme and hateful, although the margins were smaller. Among women under 50 characterized as likely to vote, respondents identified abortion as essentially just as important to them in determining their vote as the economy and inflation. It would therefore seem fitting to assume that continuing pushes from Republicans for expanded abortion restrictions in the aftermath of the U.S. Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade will further entrench certain voters’ opposition to the party. Republican officials basically leaped at the opportunity provided by the undoing of Roe for new restrictions on abortion; in Missouri, the state attorney general took a required procedural step for the implementation of a so-called trigger ban on abortion within minutes of the court’s decision overturning Roe emerging.