Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is underwater among national female voters on a variety of issues championed by conservatives as part of the so-called culture wars, according to a new poll.
DeSantis has been rumored to join the Republican presidential fray this month following months of skepticism of whether he would challenge GOP front-runner Donald Trump, who has ratcheted up his attacks against the popular governor in recent weeks.
Trump actually did better among female voters in 2020 than he did in 2016, by a five-point margin, but he still trailed President Joe Biden by 11 percentage points, according to the Pew Research Center. A majority of women have preferred Democratic candidates in presidential candidates dating back to 1996, per data from Rutgers University’s Center for American Women and Politics.
A Data for Progress poll conducted between March 17 and April 8 found that the majority of women voters are against six policies enacted by DeSantis and the conservative-majority Florida Legislature.
The policies are as follows:
- Making abortion illegal after six weeks of pregnancy, which was opposed by 54 percent of women and supported by 35 percent.
- Mandating that K-12 libraries immediately remove and review books flagged as inappropriate, opposed by 57 percent and supported by 32 percent.
- Banning college majors and minors in Critical Race Theory (CRT), opposed by 53 percent and supported by 30 percent.
- Eliminating college diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) program, opposed by 53 percent and supported by 29 percent.
- Banning college majors and minors in gender studies, opposed by 58 percent and supported by 27 percent.
- Allowing individuals to carry concealed guns without a permit or training, opposed by 75 percent and supported by 19 percent.
The poll showed “strong” opposition, or between 34 and 59 percent, among surveyed women regarding the aforementioned policies.
The largest opposition was in relation to guns, followed by the six-week abortion rule. The gun policy is also opposed by surveyed male voters by a 25-point margin.
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DeSantis signed the Heartbeat Protection Act into law in April, prohibiting abortions once a heartbeat is detected—which can occur after six weeks. Abortion rights were a major issue following the Dobbs decision that had an enormous impact on the 2022 midterms and, in effect, the U.S. Senate.
The governor has on more than one occasion referred to “woke indoctrination” in regard to policies related to CRT, DEI, book bans and gender studies. Even Republican billionaire Peter Thiel, a Paypal co-founder, said DeSantis would “make a terrific president” even though he is obsessed with the “woke” issue.
But not only are DeSantis’ favored policies admonished by female voters, the new poll shows, but Democrats and independents, in general, do not support them on a national level.
Adam Cayton, a government professor at the University of West Florida, told Newsweek via phone that the results may show a disconnect between issues potentially deemed important by DeSantis and some segments of the conservative base—even though they “have very little connection to most people’s lives.”
The juxtaposition between DeSantis’ positions and the abortion policy is especially striking, he noted, considering that his potential challenger, Trump, as president appointed three conservative judges to the Supreme Court who in turn helped reverse 50-year precedent.
“The Supreme Court opens the door to states restricting abortion access and [DeSantis is] the one who has to sign the bills and enforce the law that the state legislature puts in place,” Cayton said. “Of course, he can only do that because of President Trump. So, I think it would be really interesting to see if governors and other state-level officials get more backlash than a national-level official who’s equally but indirectly responsible for it.
“It’s certainly possible that in a general election, these very high-profile issues will harm DeSantis because he’s directly had his hands on carrying them out.”
