Women voters favor Obama over Romney, new Gallup poll shows (VIDEO)
A supporter of President Barack Obama’s health care reforms argues with several elderly women who are against the reforms in front of the US Supreme Court in Washington, DC after the morning session March 27, 2012. The US Supreme Court Tuesday took up the most contentious part of President Barack Obama’s landmark health care reform, hearing arguments on whether it is constitutional to require Americans to buy insurance coverage. The second day of an unprecedented three days of arguments into the Affordable Care Act, derided by opponents as “Obamacare” but hailed by supporters as a major achievement, has focused national attention on what could be a decisive issue in the 2012 presidential elections.
Women under 50 in battleground states prefer President Obama to GOP candidate Mitt Romney 2 to 1, according to the latest USA Today/Gallup Poll.
President Obama is currently leading the Republican front-runner 51 percent to 42 percent among registered voters, a huge jump from February, when Romney was beating Obama by two percentage points, reported USA Today.
The poll collected data from 993 registered voters in 12 crucial swing states: Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Michigan, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Wisconsin, according to the poll.
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Romney's support from younger women has slid 14 points to 30 percent, USA Today reported. Following traditional GOP voting patterns, Romney's strongest supporters are men 50 and older, who prefer him to Obama 56 percent to 38 percent.
Republicans' traditional strength among men "won't be good enough if we're losing women by nine points or 10 points," Sara Taylor Fagen, a Republican strategist and former political adviser to President George W. Bush, told USA Today. "The focus on contraception has not been a good one for us…and Republicans have unfairly taken on water on this issue."
There are a few factors that may be contributing to Obama's favorability among women voters, Politico reported.
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For one, Obama's campaign manager Jim Messina's three top deputies are all women. Stephanie Cutter, Jen O'Malley Dillon, and Julianna Smoot oversee Obama's communications, logistics, and fundraising, respectively, according to Politico, and the Obama campaign has been targeting women voters in swing states with mailings, as well as focusing their social media efforts on "female-centric" issues and events.
Obama's team has also cast health care as a women's issue; the President even released a video last week addressing Planned Parenthood supporters.
"Look for the lines between family health care — polls show that women make most family health care choices — and reproductive health to be increasingly blurred," wrote Politico's Glenn Thrush. "Women are to Obama 2012 what college kids were to Obama 2008."
Romney, on the other hand, has promised to end Planned Parenthood, which provides family planning services, Reuters reported. Women voters, who are more likely to register as Democrats, have always been a difficult demographic for Republicans, according to Reuters.
Mitt Romney seemed well aware of his standing amongst women at a campaigning event in Wisconsin on Sunday, MSNBC reported.
"We have work to do to make sure we take our message to the women of America," Romney said.
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