New Poll: Unmarried Women Poised to Make the Difference in 2016

January 16, 2015

2016 Election

Unmarried women and other members of the Rising American Electorate could be responsible for Democratic presidential success in 2016, just as they were in 2012, according to a new national poll released today by the Women’s Voices Women Vote Action Fund. The survey, conducted by pollster Stan Greenberg and Democracy Corps, found that former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton leads likely Republican candidates in the 2016 presidential race by 62 percent to 33 percent among unmarried women voters. With all voters, Sec. Clinton begins with a 6 point lead over Gov. Mitt Romney and a 12 point lead over Gov. Jeb Bush.

The new national findings make clear that all candidates who aspire to the White House will need to speak to the financial insecurities many voters feel.

“Voters are still getting squeezed economically,” said Page Gardner, president and founder of the Voices Women Vote Action Fund. “But, our new research suggests that unmarried women could provide Democratic presidential candidates with a winning advantage if their concerns about their economic well-being are addressed.”

The survey was a joint project of Democracy Corps, WVWVAF, and the Voter Participation Center. The Voter Participation Center research related to nonpartisan questions regarding policy topics.

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Poll Results (PDF)

Results from the 2016 voter survey from GQRR, Democracy Corps, Women's Voices Women Vote Action Fund, and the Voter Participation Center.

What We're Reading

U.S. Census: Unmarried and Single Americans Week

To commemorate Unmarried and Single Americans Week (September 17-23), the U.S. Census has produced a “Facts for Features” profile (PDF) of 2016 census data about unmarried Americans. Here are some of the highlights:

There are 110.6 unmarried people 18 or older in America, making up 45.2% of the U.S. adult population.
35.4 million Americans lived alone in 2016, representing 28.1% of all US households — up from 17.1% in 1970.
Despite unmarried people being 45.2% of the U.S. adult population, only 39.6% of voters in the 2016 presidential election were unmarried.

Read the rest of the U.S. Census Bureau’s “Facts for Features” profile (PDF) on unmarried Americans.

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July 25, 2017

(CNN)In 2018, the American electorate will cross a historic threshold that could reshape the political balance of power-or leave Democrats fuming in frustration at continued Republican dominance of Washington.

For the first time, millennials next year will pass baby boomers as the largest generation of Americans eligible to vote, according to the well-respected demographic forecasts from the States of Change project at the Center for American Progress, a liberal advocacy group. That transition will end a remarkable four decades of dominance for the baby boomers, who have been the largest generation of eligible voters since 1978, when they surpassed what’s been popularly referred to as the Greatest Generation (or G.I. Generation) raised during the Depression. Read more here.

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Demographic change is slowly, but inevitably, moving Western states to the left.

By Reid Wilson

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New Poll: Unmarried Women Poised to Make the Difference in 2016

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