An article in the Houston Chronicle today notes that women in Texas are torn. But I just got off a briefing call with pollster Celinda Lake, who reminded that women in both Texas and Ohio are leaning Hillary. Celinda also noted the following 5 things about this extraordinary election:
1. The magnitude of the gender gap has reached historic proportions.
2. Turnout models have never been so off.
3. The extent to which the economy has supplanted Iraq as the #1 issue is momentous.
4. Early voting is 4-5 times what it's been in the past.
And my personal favorite:
5. Younger voters are turning out 2,3, and 4 times as much in certain states as in the past.
2 comments:
Thanks for the post and the Houston Chronicle link, Girl with Pen. I've talked with five Texas women who are quite torn (the middle aged ones are leaning Hillary, the younger ones Barack). Let's hear from some of you in Ohio.
I'm a college student at Rice University in Houston, and I'm a Hillary supporter. The Obama campaign has had a presence on my campus for months. They are paying two current undergraduates to organize Rice students to make calls for Obama and go to Obama events. These two undergraduates are in close contact with the national Obama campaign staffers, and their efforts on our campus are fully supported.
Last week, I went to the opening of Hillary's campaign headquarters in Houston hoping to find out how we could increase Hillary's presence at Rice. I finally tracked down a guy who said he was in charge of campus activism. When my three friends and I eagerly told him that we wanted to help at Rice and asked for some direction and support, he ignored us. Of course, he responded to us and was not rude, but what he said was, "Just talk to your friends. Young people are afraid to be Hillary supporters, so you should just start talking to people." He didn't mention concrete ways by which we could get Rice students more involved with the Texas campaign, and he didn't seem to be very concerned with getting younger people to vote. We gave him our email addresses and phone numbers, but we haven't heard from him at all.
I have already early-voted for Hillary, and I hope with all of my heart that she gets the nomination. But I am upset at how little (especially in comparison to Obama's) her campaign seems to value younger people. Younger voters are turning out more, but I bet they're almost all voting for Obama. His campaign has made an effort to include young people, and Hillary seems to be ignoring us. I do talk to my friends about Hillary, and I have signs all over my room, but it would have been nice to have some more support from her campaign.
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