OPINION:
Hillary Clinton has a problem with men.
For all the press articles that have been done discussing Donald Trump’s problem with women, Mrs. Clinton’s gap among male voters is devastating — far worse than Mr. Trump’s performance among female voters, according to a new Fox News poll.
In the latest poll, Mrs. Clinton loses the male vote by 22 points to Mr. Trump, whereas he holds a 14-point deficit to her when it comes to the female vote.
To put this in perspective, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, in 2012, lost the female vote to now President Obama by 12 points — Mr. Trump is essentially running even with the former GOP nominee, according to the poll. This is astonishing given all the bad press Mr. Trump has received regarding women, and the articles written about how females have an unfavorable view of the businessman.
With men, however, Mr. Trump is killing it. He crushes Mrs. Clinton, the Democratic front-runner, by a 22-point margin, making up for any gap he has with the female vote. In 2012, Mr. Romney won the male vote by only 8 points to Mr. Obama. Meaning, if the election were held today and 2012’s turnout models held, Mr. Trump would win the popular vote by 4 million ballots. Mr. Trump would be the new president of the United States.
Yes, Mrs. Clinton should be doing better among female voters — especially given how she’s pandered to them this entire election cycle — but its her numbers among men that will be her Achilles Heel if these polls hold come November.
Moreover, there’s no clear formula on how Mrs. Clinton makes up for this deficit. Men particularly don’t seem to trust her or like her, which is represented in her overall low favorability numbers. It’s also nonsense to believe sexism is playing a role, given Mrs. Clinton’s been in public service most of her entire adult life, and the Democratic electorate has proven it’s open to diversity.
Mrs. Clinton simply isn’t resonating in the way Mr. Trump is with male, blue-collar voters. She doesn’t seem to relate to them, or speak to them in a way that provides any comfort regarding their economic woes. She’s continually lost the white, male vote to Vermont Sen. Bernard Sanders in the Democratic primary, and given the Fox News poll, it appears this problem will follow her come November.
Yes, the women’s vote matters — we’ve heard it over and over again. But so do the men’s.
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