Two of the highest-profile female politicians would probably perform about as well as the men running for president in 2004.
And many voters who oppose supporting a female presidential candidate would nevertheless vote for a female candidate of their own party rather than vote for a male from the other party.
Those are the findings from the University of Pennsylvania’s National Annenberg Election Survey.
Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) would win roughly the same percentage of voters as Democratic presidential nominee Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.). Sen. Elizabeth Dole (R-N.C.) would get fewer Republican votes but make it up by winning 19 percent of the Democrats versus the 13 percent that Bush won in this scenario, according to the survey. Her cross-over appeal would mean that she would win about as many overall votes, according to the survey. Interestingly, 29 percent of people who said they would be “very unlikely” to vote for a woman backed Clinton in a race with Bush, and 46 percent of “very unlikely” supporters of women said they would pick Dole over Kerry.
“These days at least, partisanship is a very strong pressure,” said Adam Clymer, the survey’s political director.
The poll interviewed more than 3,500 people and has a margin of error of 2 percentage points.