(WTOL) - With the caucus in Iowa just around the corner, WTOL 11's Jerry Anderson and Viviana Hurtado sat down with Bowling Green State University political science professor Melissa Miller to discuss where the presidential candidates stand with women voters.
Recent Republican candidate Donald Trump announced a boycott of the next Fox News debate, no doubt continuing his feud with Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly.
In the first Fox News debate, Kelly grilled Trump on his past comments, as disparaging to women.
So, what could be the effect on female voters? Miller says Trump may be skating on thin ice.
"This stepping out of the Fox debate at the last minute could come back to haunt him," Kelly said. "Right now he's focused on winning Iowa and sealing up the Republican nomination, but what happens now will be used by the democrats. And the democrats know that women are a key voting block… and that's where he runs a risk. He runs a risk of turning off Independent voters, undecided voters and women in particular."
Women win the White House. Last time out 55 to 45, the gender gap is now double digit democrat to republican.
"The GOP knows that it has to do some serious work to get women and narrow that gender gap so that it can win the White House in November," she said. "And interesting enough, in 2014 the GOP did a great job recruiting women to run… And I think what some of the party leaders are concerned about is that the comments that Megyn Kelly was quoting in the original Fox News debate, that Donald Trump has made about women, do seem disparaging and could, you know, once again threaten the GOP's position among women. And women are a key voting block."
Hilary Clinton, was this supposed to be a coronation, apparently not so far. Enter Bernie Sanders. WTOL 11 asked Miller where the women and Hilary are at this point in time?
"Middle aged and older women tend to be sticking with her. But much like what happened in 2008, young women voters, in the critical 18 to 24 to 29 year olds, seem to not be under her umbrella right now," she said. "In fact, they seem to like the 74-year-old candidate Bernie Sanders… He's got these idealistic ideas about what he'd like to do. He's calling for a revolution. That's going to appeal to young women and men by the way. And I think that's why we've seen this Sander's surge leading into Iowa."
The caucus in Iowa is Tuesday, Feb. 2.
