Most Americans say a candidate’s gender doesn’t influence their vote, poll shows

A majority of Americans said in a new poll that gender doesn’t influence their vote when it comes to choosing a presidential candidate amid a record number of women running for president in 2020.

The Hill-HarrisX survey, which was released on Thursday, found that 62 percent of voters said that gender doesn’t make a difference or that they were “about as likely” to vote for a woman as they were a man when considering a presidential candidate.

Twenty-two percent said they were less likely to vote for a female presidential candidate, while 16 percent said they were more likely to favor a candidate if that candidate was a woman. 

A majority of voters across all parties agreed that gender doesn’t make a difference when voting for president. 

The poll shows that 54 percent of Republicans said gender wasn’t a factor, while 67 percent of Democrats and Independents each said the same.

Younger voters were more inclined to consider gender when voting for a president.

The poll showed that 28 percent of adults 18 to 34 say they were more likely to consider it a factor.

When broken down by gender, sixty-four percent of women said gender wasn’t an issue when selecting a candidate, compared to 62 percent of men who agreed.

There are a historic number of women running for president in 2020. Out of more then two dozen candidates, six women are seeking the Democratic presidential nomination. 

Two of these women — Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) — are considered top-tier candidates, ranking among the top five contenders in most national polls.

The U.S. has yet to elect a female president, and still behind many countries in closing the gender gap in politics.

Despite recent gains made in the 2018 midterm elections, the U.S. still ranks 75th out of 193 countries when it comes to women’s representation in government, according to advocacy group the Inter-Parliamentary Union.

The Hill-HarrisX poll was conducted online from July 20-21, 2019 among 1,003 registered voters. The sampling margin of error of this poll is plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.

—Tess Bonn