On Tuesday, Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton mingles with supporters at her New Hampshire presidential primary campaign rally in Hooksett, N.H.
In New Hampshire, women under the age of 45 overwhelmingly backed Bernie Sanders over Hillary Clinton, exit polls showed. It’s a problem for the former secretary of state as she tries to build the coalition of voters needed to win the Democratic nomination, and she knows it, saying of young voters as she conceded New Hampshire to Sanders that, “even if they are not supporting me now, I support them.”
The numbers are staggering, and not just because Clinton – widely expected to be the first woman to win the presidential nomination of a major political party – lost New Hampshire women to a 74-year-old grandfather. Sanders won the votes of 7 out of every 10 women under the age of 45, and nearly 80 percent of women under the age of 30.
“I think for young women, they clearly identify as feminists, they say they’re feminists, but I think the notion of having a woman president … it doesn’t drive them in the same way, as women who are in the traditional second wave of feminism,” said Debbie Walsh, director for the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University.
Indeed, young women in New Hampshire said they were more inspired by the Vermont senator’s ambitious policy proposals, including a government-run health care system for all and free public college tuition. Clinton’s more pragmatic ideas and complicated public history are a tough sell.
“We always have another chance to have another woman president, but do we have another chance to have someone as genuine as Bernie Sanders is?” asked Nicole McGillicuddy, 26, a server at a Concord restaurant, who believes there will a female president in her lifetime.
Clinton and Sanders will meet for the next debate of the Democratic race on Thursday in Milwaukee, when Clinton’s outreach to younger women is sure to continue.
Compared with her 2008 bid, which focused more on experience and her readiness for the White House, Clinton has embraced her gender this time, touting her potential to be the first female president and stressing economic issues popular with women, including equal pay and family leave.
She has promoted endorsements from women’s organizations, campaigned with female elected officials and sought to impress younger women with surrogates like pop star Katy Perry and actress Lena Dunham.
But the message has not resonated, much to the frustration of the Clinton campaign. Angst over Sanders’ appeal erupted recently, when former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said there was “a special place in hell” for women who don’t help women and renowned feminist Gloria Steinem said that Sanders’ female supporters were doing it to meet boys.
Those comments were roundly criticized, prompting an apology from Steinem.
“I can’t see voting for someone just because she’s a woman. That’s a bad message. It does not resonate. It’s lame,” said Barbara Considine, 58, of western Massachusetts. “It backfires. In fact, it’s suggesting we’re not supposed to think about what the issues are or anything else.”
Clinton is expected to fare better in the upcoming early contests than she did in Iowa, where she barely eked out a win in the caucuses, and lost in New Hampshire. A recent national poll from Quinnipiac University showed Clinton winning women voters 48-38 against Sanders.
Stephanie Schriock, the president of Emily’s List, which supports Democratic women who back abortion rights as they run for Congress and governors, and who has been campaigning for Clinton in the early states, argued that the idea Clinton was losing women was “overblown.”
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