A deep gap between men and women on Trump could influence 2018 targets, poll suggests

According to the latest national survey of PBS NewsHour, NPR and Marist, men and women continue to be deeply divided over President Donald Trump's performance in the last weeks of 2018, a gap that could influence major races largely. considered a referendum. on the president.

Fifty-three percent of Americans disapprove of Trump's job performance, a figure that has not changed much since taking office, according to the new poll released Friday. Thirty-nine percent of American adults said they approve of what the president has done since entering the White House; 8% said they were not sure.

But the gap between men's and women's views on Trump is double-digit. Forty-six percent of men surveyed said they approve of the president's job, compared to 33 percent of women who said the same thing. Among women, 61% of women surveyed said they disapproved of Trump's presidency, as did 45% of men.

This remains almost identical to the perception that women and men had of Trump almost a year ago. In a Marist poll conducted last November, 46% of men and 33% of women approved Trump's performance, while 61% of women and 49% of men disapproved.

These latest approval results reveal "the gender gap, the gap between men and women, in almost everything," said Barbara Carvalho, director of the Marist Survey, especially with regard to Trump's vision. .

This is particularly true among suburban women, said Lee Miringoff, director of the Marist Institute for Public Opinion – a demographic group that could reverse congressional control in a year when a record number of women would run for office. .

In a recent poll conducted by the Associated Press and the NORC Public Affairs Research Center, about 80% of Americans think that the country is deeply divided on values ​​and nearly 40% think that "the situation will get worse". In the Newshour-NPR newspaper – According to a Marist poll, 76% of registered voters surveyed said that this year's elections were very important. The vast majority of Democrats (83%) and Republicans (80%) said they were motivated to go to the polls, and two-thirds of voters who identify themselves as politically independent also said that they were animated this cycle.

Poll: The majority of Americans dissatisfied with US politics, divisions of doubt will soon improve

The participation rate at mid-term is generally lower than that of the presidential election years. The same is true for the general enthusiasm of the voters in the mid-term elections, according to the results of the Marist polls. For example, in October 2010, 40% of registered voters said they were the first to follow the controversial debate and adoption of the Affordable Care Act, halfway through the presidency of Barack Obama, and said they were very enthusiastic about the mid-term elections.

In 2010, 49 percent of Republican voters said they were "very excited" about the mid-term elections, as well as 35 percent of Democrats and 38 percent of independent voters – a level well below the level of enthusiasm reported this year.

This year, by contrast, "could be the highest turnout in the middle of a century," said Miringoff.

It is unclear what role Trump will play in participation. When asked if Trump had influenced their decision to go to the polls this year, registered voters were divided: 44% said he had played a major role, 23% said that 39; he exerted a minor influence and 31% said that Trump had nothing to do with would vote.

Nevertheless, the proportion of registered voters who said that the current president held a prominent place in their decision to vote was significantly higher than in September 2014, during the last mid-term cycle. At the time, only 28% of registered voters said that Obama had put them to the polls; 52% said that Obama was not a factor at all.

When asked about policy issues in the last survey, 20% of registered voters said that the economy and jobs were at the heart of their concerns, while 17% of voters said health care was their number one priority . 17% cited immigration, and 9% said federal taxes and spending were their main problem during this election period.

PBS NewsHour, NPR and Marist conducted a survey on October 9th and 23rd with 935 US adults with a margin of error of 3.9 percentage points, including 738 registered voters with a margin of error of 4.1 points percentage.