Democratic pollster Stan Greenberg said Wednesday that unmarried women are the “absolute centerpiece” of the 2014 midterm elections for his party.
Greenberg joined Women’s Voices Women’s Vote founder Page Gardner on a press call with reporters to release the results of a new national survey, which found that, with the right messaging, Democrats could pick up votes from the rising American electorate and shift the vote in their favor from a -1 to a +3 margin.
{mosads}According to the Democracy Corps/Women’s Voices Women Vote Action Fund survey, the rising American electorate responds best to an empathetic “in your shoes” messaging framework. And when unmarried women are exposed to this messaging, they shift from +17 to +31 Democratic margin and increase their turnout by 10 percent.
In a congressional race that is neck-in-neck, Greenberg said that messaging could make all the difference for Democrats.
His survey found that unmarried women voters respond positively to an economic agenda that caters to their interests, focusing on policies that help working mothers, secure equal pay, raise the minimum wage and make college more affordable.
“Unmarried women want a ‘walk in my shoes’ narrative,” Gardner said of the survey results. “They want to know candidates understand their lives.”
The poll also found that Republican attacks against Democrats, particularly on Obamacare and the economy, inversely affect voter turnout.
“The more Republicans proceed with their attacks, the more they drive base voters to vote in off-year elections,” Greenberg said. And these mobilized voters are those who disagree rather than those who agree with the attacks.
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Among unmarried women voters, the survey found that the most effective attack against GOP candidates is their indifference to pay equity, which causes 71 percent of unmarried women to have doubts about voting Republican in November.
The Democracy Corps/WVWVAF poll surveyed 950 2012 voters and 827 likely 2014 voters. It was conducted from June 10-15 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.18 percent.