New poll shows Hillary Clinton losing support among women

In a new Monmouth University national poll, Clinton’s lead among women has shrunk considerably since the same poll was conducted in December. In December, Clinton led rival Bernie Sanders by 45 points among women, 64 percent to Sanders’ 19 percent. Now she leads Sanders by just 19 points among women, 54 percent to 35 percent.

That is still a large lead, but it is a massive drop in just one month. And voters in primaries tend to make decisions about whom to support in the final month — indeed, the final days — before voting. The Iowa caucuses are less than two weeks away.

This poll showed that Democrats still believe Clinton has a better chance against the eventual Republican nominee than Sanders, but it echoes a growing concern for the Clinton campaign. Clinton, who has made her womanhood a central part of her campaign, isn’t doing that great with women.

In November, a Quinnipiac University poll found women in Colorado preferring nearly every top GOP candidate to Clinton. She tied with Trump.

And just last week another poll showed that Sanders is doing better with millennial women than Clinton. In the USA Today/Rock the Vote poll, Sanders had a 19-point lead over Clinton with millennial women. Whether Sanders can get those women to actually come out to vote for him is another story.

But it highlights a major problem for Clinton. President Obama was able to bring out record numbers of African-Americans to support his candidacy. It does not appear as though Clinton will be able to mimic those results with women voters. Clinton could very well inspire a historic number of women to vote, but it is not clear those women would be voting for her.

Clinton still does better than Sanders overall and with African-American and Latino voters, as well as Democrats over 50. But her campaign to be the first woman president doesn’t appear to be inspiring women.

Ashe Schow is a commentary writer for the Washington Examiner.