MADISON, Wis. — Candidates for Wisconsin governor are trying to win over women, with first lady Michelle Obama making two stops in eight days to boost Democrat Mary Burke’s campaign and Gov. Scott Walker turning to a domestic violence victim to tout his record in an emotional new television ad.

The fight for the female vote comes as the race remains razor-thin with just over a month until Election Day. The latest Marquette University Law School poll released Wednesday showed Walker with a slight 5.8 percentage-point lead among likely voters, with a 4.1-point margin of error.

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Republican Gov. Scott Walker is turning to a domestic violence victim to tout his record in an emotional new television ad. The Associated Press

Democrat Mary Burke has made Gov. Scott Walker's record the focus of her campaign. The Associated Press

But the gender divide is massive. Walker had a 28-point lead among men, while Burke had a 14-point advantage with women.

Although Burke would be Wisconsin’s first female governor, if she’s elected, she has made Walker’s record the focus of her campaign. Abortion-rights groups have been spending heavily to help Burke and hammer Walker for backing a slew of measures they opposed, including laws requiring ultrasounds for those seeking abortions, cutting funding for Planned Parenthood and making it more difficult to bring pay equity lawsuits.

“There’s a very clear contrast for people who support women and women’s rights,” said Cecile Richards, president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America. She campaigned for Burke last week in Milwaukee and Madison.

Walker is trying to blunt those criticisms with a new statewide television ad featuring Teri Jendusa-Nicolai, who survived being beaten by her ex-husband and left to die in a storage locker in 2004.

She has been an advocate for a number of Walker-backed laws that the Republican-led Legislature has passed during his term that protect abused women.

“He cares about women and Wisconsin families,” Jendusa-Nicolai says in the ad, looking directly at the camera. “I trust him.”

Last week, Walker and Jendusa-Nicolai hosted a conference call with reporters from throughout Wisconsin to tout the ad and his record on domestic violence issues.

Walker pointed to his support for a $10.6 million integrated care center for victims of abuse and their families in Milwaukee, $560,000 for a new domestic abuse intervention center in Madison, and $1.5 million in additional grants for state-operated domestic abuse shelters.

Jendusa-Nicolai said she reached out to Walker’s campaign to offer her help in spreading the news about his record on these issues and to combat opponents’ claims that he and Republicans don’t have the best interests of women in mind.

“There is no war on women,” she said.

Walker’s opponents paint a much different picture.

NARAL Pro-Choice America said it was spending an unspecified amount on mailings, online ads and phone calls in Wisconsin against Walker. The mailing says that Walker is obsessed with outlawing abortion and cites his support for the law requiring those who perform abortions to have admitting privileges at nearby hospitals.

Emily’s List, a group that works to elect Democratic women who support abortion rights, said it plans to spend $1.2 million on television ads for Burke this month.

Attacking Walker’s record on women’s issues hasn’t been all smooth for Democrats. Last month, Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz said Walker had “given women the back of his hand.” She later backed away from those comments under criticism that she was comparing Walker to an abuser.

Other Democratic power players are trying to help Burke.

Last month, Burke spoke at a Women’s Leadership Forum in Washington where potential 2016 presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton praised her. And Michelle Obama, while campaigning for Burke in Milwaukee, tailored her message to female voters.

“This election is on us,” Obama said at the rally, echoing the ‘It’s On Us’ campaign launched by the president in September to combat sexual assaults on college campuses. “We can’t wait around for anyone else to do this. It’s on us to get people energized and organized and out to vote on November the 4th. That’s on us.”

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