For decades, men have shamelessly voted for other men while women acted like the idea of voting for a woman because she was a woman was illegitimate, even somehow dirty. That may be starting to change. While a majority of voters continue to claim—a substantial number of them lying and still more fooling themselves about their motives—that gender doesn’t matter, a new CBS News battleground congressional districts poll finds that “women voters in battleground congressional districts are five times as likely to say they would choose a woman candidate (28%) over a man (5%) if both candidates agreed with them on policy and party.”
Unsurprisingly, Democratic women are way ahead of Republican women on this one: 42 percent of Democratic women say they’d choose a woman over a man with similar positions, while just 15 percent of Republican women say the same. Women who prefer to vote for women say female candidates may have a better understanding of issues they care about and point to a desire for diversity in politics.
The poll reflects the reality we’re seeing as state primaries play out: women are winning primaries in record numbers.
There’s some good news in the poll for the Democratic Party as well as for women running for office: “By 2 to 1, women trust the Democratic Party over the Republican Party on issues that impact women.” Respondents ranked health care as their top issue.