Lets face it….
Nikki Haley does have a steep hill to climb….
This as she rises into second place behind Trump in some Republican primary polling….
One should remember that Hillary Clinton was in a party that more readily accepted her run for President….
As Haley has risen in the polls in recent months amid a shrinking GOP field, she has faced escalating attacks from rivals and their allies that critics regard as sexist and meant to single out her gender in a Republican Party that has been slower than Democrats to elevate women into some of the most prominent elected offices. The party remains dominated by Trump, who routinely attacks women with sexist and demeaning language and was this year found liable for sexual abuse.
Interviews with more than 40 Republican voters, activists and officials in key early states show a party that has never nominated a woman for president navigating conflicting opinions, including some signs of voter unease at the prospect, even as Haley has grown her support and seeks to cement her position as Trump’s top GOP challenger. Some Haley backers say they are increasingly concerned about this trend — and what they see as efforts from rival candidates and their allies to exploit it.
Haley supporter Bart Weller, who attended her town hall in Ankeny, Iowa, summed up some of the challenges that Haley faces when he recalled one of his brothers bluntly telling him, “I don’t want to vote for a woman to be president.”
Male rivals have gone after Haley in ways that some GOP critics say is either flatly sexist or carries sexist undertones. Trump has labeled Haley “birdbrain.” He told conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt earlier this year that she was “overly ambitious” and “just couldn’t stay in her seat.” (Haley has said being called ambitious used to bother her, but now she considers it being a “badass”).
Biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy has suggested Haley should switch over to “the party of identity politics” and claimed her “gender-card shtick is pathetic & straight out of the Kamala Harris / Hillary Clinton playbook.”…
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“In the old Republican Party, there would have been a lot of men who would have stood up and said, ‘How dare you, this is outrageous,’” Comstock added. “But Trump’s unleashed everyone’s inner misogyny — so for a lot of these guys, they can openly be that way because Trump is.”…
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Women of both parties face gender discrimination running for office, but experts say historical patterns show the hurdles for female Republicans can be even more pervasive because the party base tends to skew more male, and GOP voters are much less likely to say women’s political underrepresentation is a problem. A Pew Research Center study in September found major differences between the two parties when adults were asked whether it was important to see a female president in their lifetime: 14 percent of Republicans or those who lean Republican said it was; while 57 percent of Democrats or those who lean Democrat said the same.
Many Republican female voters said they like Haley’s political pitch, including her calls for consensus and unity. But Trump is leading the GOP primary field by a huge margin, including among female voters; in a recent Fox News poll, 61 percent of Republican female primary voters backed Trump while only 9 percent backed Haley….
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“Talking about gender is a no-win path for a female politician. If you say there are real problems that women face, then you’re a whiner. You say everything is wonderful and there are no problems at all, half the population wonders what planet you’re on,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), who mounted her own presidential bid in 2020, told The Washington Post.
While Clinton galvanized female voters in 2016 with the goal of breaking the “highest, hardest glass ceiling,” Haley has been more subtle with her nods at her gender, emphatically stating she rejects identity-based politics….
Note…
The above linked post make no mention of the minority factor which one might guess IS a added factor for Republican male dominanted voters….
image…CNN