Targeting Single/Married Women

The title sounds vaguely threatening, but its not. I swear.

Via polling (pdf) by Young Voter Strategies and Women's Voices, Women's Vote, and background info provided in the YVS newsletter (which I highly recommend subscribing to) I've got some statistics on single/married women between 18 and 29.

Single Women:

• 58% of unmarried women identify as Democrats. 21% as Independents.
• Iraq, Health Care, Jobs, and Education are their issues (in that order).

Married Women:

• 60% of women 18-30 who self-identify as Republicans are married. 43% of independents are married; 30% Democrats are married.
• Married women under 30 give Republicans an 8 point partisan advantage among their demographic.
• Married women care about Homeland Security, Iraq, and Jobs (in that order).

In 2008, young women (18-29) will equal 21 million eligible voters, and, like most young voters, partisan ID among young women still is not a lock. Single women are clearly a place that progressive groups and candidates should be focusing their resources, but I wonder if we should also look at applying some 50 state strategy here.

There are definitely cultural factors at work in these numbers, with married young women far more likely to be Republican or even Independent than Democrat. I'm betting there are geographic ones as well (though I can't back that up right now). Campaigns and the Party should take note where these different groups cluster, and target their messages in those geographic areas. In highly red counties, where married women in their 20's might outnumber single women, messages should be targeted to lure more married Independents to vote Democratic and cut into the Republican's base. We probably won't turn Red counties blue, but maybe we can purple things up and elect some Democrats way down the ticket and start to build a bench that can work its way up the state political ladder.

More interesting findings:

• Most young women want fast-food activism (point and click), and very few want to become professionally involved in politics (4%).
• Despite their disdain of politics, most would prefer a female president.
• Four in Ten young women support Hillary.
• 25% of young women would not support a women for President.

Comparatively:

• Men (18-29) are far more concerned about the war and economy than women.
• 44% of Men said they might some day run for office.

Source