It's The Gender Gap That Should Worry GOP Candidates

Donald Trump again attacked the "Me Too" movement in a recent rally. Evidently, he doesn't think Republican candidates need women's votes in the coming election. He's wrong, and his continued war on women and women's issues should worry the hell out of Republican candidates this year.

There is a huge gender gap in the party preference for the 2018 election. Women prefer Democratic candidates by 16 points. Men prefer Republican candidates by 6 points. That would spell trouble for Republicans if men and women voted in equal numbers, but they don't. For past elections for at least a couple of decades, women have voted in larger numbers than men -- and that is true of all age groups. It is very likely they will again vote in larger numbers this November.

There are some safe districts for Republicans, but the number of competitive districts is growing -- and women could tip the scales toward Democrats in those districts. The Democrats only need to flip about 28 districts to seize control of the House of Representatives, and there are 50 to 60 districts now considered competitive.

These charts reflect the results of a recent Pew Research Center survey -- done between June 5th and 12th of a national sample of 1,608 registered voters, with a 2.9 point margin of error.