How important is it for American women to support a female presidential candidate? Not very, Americans say, according to a new
Rasmussen Reports poll released Thursday.
The poll — conducted after prominent feminists who support Hillary Clinton said women voters have an obligation to vote for a female candidate — found only 4 percent of likely U.S. voters believe it is more important for women to vote for a female candidate because she is a woman.
A whopping 91 percent disagree and place more importance on where the female candidate stands on the issues, Rasmussen found.
And women are even more emphatic about it than men.
Ninety-two percent of women voters said it's more important for women to vote for a female candidate because of where she stands on the issues, while just 4 percent said it's more important to vote for her because she is a woman.
Voters were evenly divided when asked whom they would choose if given two candidates, one a man, the other a woman and all other things being equal.
Some 29 percent said the man, with another 29 percent, the woman. But 42 percent told Rasmussen they are undecided.
Last Saturday, former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright declared: "There's a special place in hell for women who don't help each other!"
And renowned feminist Gloria Steinem told talk-show host Bill Maher that young women are only voting for Sanders "because that's where the boys are." She later issued a retraction.
The Rasmussen survey of 1,000 likely voters was conducted on Feb.9-10, and has a margin of sampling error of +/- 3 percentage points with a 95 percent level of confidence.
Rasmussen is a New Jersey-based nonpartisan electronic media company specializing in the collection, publication and distribution of public opinion polling information.
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