Why Women Are Democrats' Last Best Hope to Salvage the Senate

The National Journal reports:

In North Carolina, GOP Senate nominee Thom Tillis had built leads of up to 14 percentage points among men in recent polls. Republicans who have won male voters by that margin have only lost two Senate races in the past 10 years, according to exit polls. It's equal to the margin Republicans posted nationwide during their electoral sweep in 2010.

But Tillis has consistently trailed in recent surveys, because Democratic Sen. Kay Hagan—whose campaign, like her party's efforts in Colorado and elsewhere across the country, has focused relentlessly on issues of greater importance to women—has run up the score even higher among female voters.

The "gender gap"—the difference between Republicans' usual margin of victory among men and Democrats' usual margin of victory among women—is nothing new. It has been evident for years in almost every election up and down the ballot. But a National Journal analysis of public polls, and interviews with strategists from both parties, suggests that the gap has ballooned to historic proportions across 2014's battleground states. Democrats are running campaigns designed to press an advantage among women that is helping the party compete in a number of races despite an unfriendly political climate and steep GOP advantages among men. Meanwhile, Republicans are searching for issues to combat the trend with female voters.

"I think the gender gaps are growing compared to past election cycles," said Matt Canter, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee's deputy executive director. "We'll see how that turns out, but that's certainly what the public and internal polling shows, in every race across the board."

Division.