After being absent from the campaign trail, citing a desire to be home with her son, Melania Trump will host three campaign events for her husband Donald Trump in Wisconsin today. He presence comes less than 24-hours before the polls close in The Badger State, where Trump is losing.
It's no surprise to those paying attention to the presidential election that Trump has a mountain to climb when it comes to winning over female voters, especially coming off of a week where he said women should be punished for seeking or having abortions and after Trump's campaign manager was charged with misdemeanor battery after allegedly bruising a reporter and publicly calling her "delusional."
In order to prove he'll be good for women, Trump will talk about his track record of jobs for women, which is a fair point. After all, Trump's daughter Ivanka is the Executive Vice President of Trump Organization and he employs a number of women at the highest levels of management, but so did businessman and Governor Mitt Romney and it didn't matter.
In 2012 when the war on women rhetoric was raging, Romney attempted to explain his positive track record with women by pointing out the number of women he had hired to work in his cabinet during his time as governor. On his business record, Romney repeatedly pointed out his hiring of women and explained his offering of a flexible schedule so women had more choices and a better work/life balance. In October 2012, just one month before the 2012 presidential election, Romney was tied with Obama among women. Despite winning married and white women on Election Day, Romney still lost the election.
As Romney has bounced back in post-debate polls, one demographic has given him a big boost: women. A Pew Research Center poll released Monday showed Romney tied with Obama among female voters, 47-47.
Trump's unfavorability with women overall tops out at 74 percent. Nearly half of Republican women view him the same way. Here's the polling from a variety of sources:
Trump has 100 percent name recognition, everyone knows who he is, and turning that number around is going to be extremely difficult. Despite every major poll showing him losing the general election to Hillary Clinton should he become the nominee, here's what might save him in the female voting demographic:
FYI on @HillaryClinton https://t.co/01wDC9z6I4 pic.twitter.com/z2uuEqXJoR
— National Review (@NRO) April 4, 2016