The FINANCIAL — After winning three state primaries yesterday, Hillary Clinton is set to become the first woman in history to get a major party’s nomination for president of the United States.
Of course, Democratic voters have been predicting a Clinton victory for months in Rasmussen Reports’ monthly Hillary Meter survey. But how do voters feel about the prospect of a woman president?
Seventy-nine percent (79%) of voters told us last year that they personally would be willing to vote for a woman president, but only 59% said their family, friends and coworkers would be willing to elect a woman to the White House. Seventy-nine percent (79%) also said it is likely a woman will be elected president in the next 10 years.
Some prominent female supporters of Clinton during the campaign said women voters have an obligation to vote for a woman candidate. Most voters – especially women – strongly reject that notion and say it’s more important where the candidate stands on the issues.
Clinton is set to face presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump in the general election, a candidate known for his brash rhetoric and intimidating campaign tactics against his party’s primary opponents. Still, just six percent (6%) of voters believe a man running against a woman for political office should campaign differently than he would against another man. An overwhelming 90% think the man should treat the woman candidate just the same way he would treat another man.
Voters also reject the reality of a political “war on women” and consider it more of a political slogan than anything else.
Clinton and Trump remain in a near tie in our weekly White House Watch survey. Rasmussen Reports will update those numbers tomorrow at 8:30 a.m. Will Clinton begin to break away now that she has secured the necessary delegates to win the nomination?
Much of Clinton’s campaign has focused on economic inequality, including income inequality between men and women in the workplace. However, 61% of voters say the economy is fair to women, although that includes just 22% who say it is Very Fair. Most women voters (54%) agree that the economy is fair to them, but only 12% say it’s Very Fair.
By comparison, just 46% of all voters think the U.S. economy in general is fair, and 60% think it is unfair to the middle class. But most voters also believe that economic growth is more important than economic fairness, and they favor policies that expand the economy over policies that promote fairness.
Generally speaking, when it comes to the economy and other major issues, voters expect Clinton to continue the policies of President Obama and Trump to change them, for better or worse.
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