Gender Driving Political Difference

Gender is one of the main characteristics defining the winners and losers in 2013 Colorado politics. Colorado polls conducted during the year show the gender gap, which has been a closely watched feature of national politics since the Reagan presidency, is a major dividing line between both candidates and issues among voters statewide.

Governor Hickenlooper benefitted from a 25-point gender gap by a net 5 points. He loses men by 10 points and wins women by 15. Also, women are nearly twice as likely to say they haven’t decided.

In the face-off with the Republicans’ frontrunner, Tom Tancredo, the gender gap provides a 10-point gap benefitting Hickenlooper, who only beat Tancredo by 5 points among all voters.

By 7 points, Coloradans don’t believe Hickenlooper should be re-elected, but men say no to re-election by 20 points, 36 percent “yes” and 56 percent “no,” whereas women support his re-election by 7 points (49% yes to 42% no).

Women also are on the liberal side of major issues:

• By 3%, women support “stricter gun control”; men, 32% oppose it
• Gender difference of 46 points on statewide ban on “high-capacity ammunition,” with women 60% in favor of a ban and men 60% opposed
• Women support Obamacare by 5 points, men disapprove of it by 22 points

See:
Public Policy Polling: CO split on Hickenlooper/Udall, GOP inclined to run 2010 candidates
Quinnipiac: Colorado Gov has early lead in re-elect bid, Quinnipiac University poll finds; voters back fracking, mixed signals on gun control