Female voters drawn to Romney this time

Economic focus, image resonating

November 07, 2011|By Matt Viser, Globe Staff

Supporters cheered Mitt Romney at a rally in Concord, N.H., late last month. (Jim Cole/Associated Press )

EXETER, N.H. - Over the course of Mitt Romney’s second presidential campaign, his advisers have repeatedly seen something in public and independent polls that was not true in his previous campaigns: he’s regularly winning a larger share of support among women than men.

“We’ve seen that difference for a while,’’ Neil Newhouse, Romney’s pollster, said last week after delivering a presentation in Washington on “Walmart Moms,’’ which he views as a key demographic in the upcoming election. “It may be that, to women, experience makes more of a difference. Experience, leadership - it’s the intangibles.’’

The small but persistent gender gap seems to have emerged because, women say, they appreciate Romney’s values, family story, business background - and, yes, his chiseled good looks - while being less interested in the ideological critiques that seem to be causing him more problems with male voters. It amounts to seeing him through a different lens.

“He is just a gentleman. He’s a good man, a good American family man,’’ Linda Thurlow, a 45-year-old stay-at-home mother from York, Maine, said as she prepared to take the ice at a local hockey rink here.

Romney’s strength with female voters - they support him by about five percentage points more than men do - was not something he saw in his 2002 campaign for governor nor his 2008 presidential run.

This time around, Romney’s campaign has significantly softened his image. He rarely wears a suit and tie and he downplays talk of social issues, such as opposition to abortion, and focuses on economic concerns. He often talks about his family - his son Tagg recently sent a video on Twitter of Romney tossing snowballs with the family - and his wife, Ann, has been a frequent presence on the stump.

During a recent trip to Nashua, for example, she talked of the rivalry she and her future husband had in a college poetry class. She also grew emotional as she told a group of women how supportive her husband has been during her battles with multiple sclerosis.

“He said, ‘I’m fine with you if you’re in the wheelchair, that doesn’t matter to me, I love you for who you are,’ ’’ she said. ‘ “I don’t care whether you can’t get dinner on the table anymore, I don’t care. I can eat toast and cereal for the rest of my life. But together we can still do anything.’ ’’

The approach resonates with some voters. According to a Fox News poll, Romney got the support of 23 percent of Republican women nationally, compared with 17 percent for Georgia businessman Herman Cain; 11 percent for Governor Rick Perry of Texas; and 10 percent for Newt Gingrich, former House speaker.