begin quote from:
New York Times -
Credit Zach Gibson/The New York Times
Senator Ted Cruz may have urged Donald J. Trump
to leave his wife, Heidi, “the hell alone,” but there is one group that
is quietly hoping Mr. Trump’s attacks on his rival’s spouse and other
women will continue indefinitely: Democrats.
As Hillary Clinton
turns her attention to a general election campaign, Mr. Trump’s nasty
skirmish with Mr. Cruz, including his warning to “spill the beans” about
Mrs. Cruz, without offering specifics, and his re-posting of a message
that mocked her looks, have played into a crucial Democratic strategy to
defeat Mr. Trump in November: to portray him as an unabashed sexist.
Mrs.
Clinton’s allies hope to sway suburban and independent women, who will
play an outsized role in deciding the fall election, to support her
candidacy by pushing this theme. These Democrats say the matchup would
be historic: one pitting the first female nominee of a major political
party against a rival who has repeatedly dismissed and disparaged women
and their looks.
“I want Donald Trump
to talk every single day for the rest of this election,” said
Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Florida, the chairwoman of
the Democratic National Committee. “He just needs to keep spewing what
he has been spewing.”
Although Mrs. Clinton will present herself as a protector of women, the political strategy is more about math than morality.
Mr. Trump has shown a particular weakness among female voters, who favored Mrs. Clinton 55 percent to 35 percent in a New York Times/CBS News poll
released this week, twice the gender gap of the 2012 presidential
election, when President Obama defeated Mitt Romney. And 31 percent of
Republican women said they would be upset if Mr. Trump were the party’s
nominee, according to the most recent CNN/ORC poll.
Graphic: 2016 Delegate Count and Primary Results
“Suburban
women have been a critical swing group in the past, and there’s a lot
about Donald Trump that is offensive to them,” said Geoff Garin, a
Democratic pollster who served as a chief strategist to Mrs. Clinton in
2008.
Continue reading the main story
Outside
groups that support Mrs. Clinton’s candidacy have begun to track and
compile comments Mr. Trump has made about women into a decades-long
montage of misogyny to be used in the fall. David Brock, the founder of
Correct the Record, a “super PAC” supporting Mrs. Clinton, said recently that of all Mr. Trump’s vulnerabilities, women may end up his Achilles’ heel.
“He’s
had a lot of success degrading and belittling his male rivals, but I
don’t think the attacks on Megyn Kelly or Carly Fiorina worked,” Mr.
Brock said, referring to the Fox News anchor and former Republican
presidential candidate who both found themselves in Mr. Trump’s cross
hairs. “They’ve all backfired,” he added.
Stephanie Schriock, the president of Emily’s List,
which helps elect pro-abortion-rights female candidates and is
supporting Mrs. Clinton’s bid, said the group planned to use Mr. Trump’s
comments to bolster both Mrs. Clinton and down-ballot Democrats. “He’s
going to drag down the rest of the Republican ticket with him,” Ms.
Schriock said. “They’ll have a hard time ever getting women voters
back.”
Republican
strategists woefully agreed with that assessment, saying that should
Mr. Trump become the nominee, he would grievously harm the party’s
chance of winning the White House and other contests because of his
unpopularity among female voters.
“It’s going to be a major factor” in November, said Ed Goeas, a Republican pollster who works for an anti-Trump super PAC, Our Principles PAC. “This guy comes across as a brash bully, and that is not very well received.”
Before the nominating contests in Ohio and Utah, Our Principles released a scathing one-minute ad
that shows women repeating some of Mr. Trump’s descriptions of women,
including “bimbo,” “dog” and “fat pig.” “This is how Donald Trump talks
about our mothers, our sisters, our daughters,” the ad says.
Betty
Montgomery, a former Republican attorney general of Ohio, predicted
that if Mr. Trump were on the November ballot, he would lose Ohio, a
crucial battleground state central to Mr. Trump’s claims that he can win
in November.
“I
think women as a whole find his language, his temperament, his
volatility — frankly, his bullying — reminiscent of their kids in the
schoolyard,” she said. “That will play very poorly in the general
election for Donald Trump.”
Hope
Hicks, a spokeswoman for Mr. Trump, said that he “has excelled with
women in each primary election to date,” and that “he will continue to
share his message, which resonates not just with women, but with
everyone who wants to Make American Great Again.”
The
latest dust-up came after a super PAC opposing Mr. Trump’s candidacy
released a picture of Mr. Trump’s wife, Melania, a former model, posing
provocatively in GQ magazine. The ad, which was aimed at Utah’s Mormon
population and had no ties to the Cruz campaign, read: “Meet Melania
Trump. Your next first lady. Or, you could support Ted Cruz on Tuesday.”
“Be
careful, Lyin’ Ted, or I will spill the beans on your wife!” Mr. Trump
posted on Twitter in response to the ad. He later posted to his 7.2
million followers an unflattering image of Mrs. Cruz next to a glamour
shot of his own wife with the caption, “The images are worth a thousand
words.”
Mr.
Trump did not elaborate on what he had in mind concerning Mrs. Cruz, a
former corporate executive who worked in the George W. Bush
administration and at Goldman Sachs.
Mrs.
Cruz has recently spoken about a difficult period in her life and
marriage in 2005, when she suffered from what Mr. Cruz described as “a
period of depression.” Campaigning on Friday in Wisconsin, Mr. Cruz
broached the subject unprompted, reminding voters that Mr. Trump had
recently “taken to attacking Heidi.” “Loser!” a supporter shouted.
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Ms.
Hicks said Mr. Cruz should have “immediately disavowed” the attack on
Mrs. Trump, who “was an extremely successful model” and “deserves
respect for a tremendous career.” (Mr. Cruz did denounce the ad on
Wednesday, calling it “completely inappropriate.”)
The fracas was only the most recent episode in which Mr. Trump’s words about women have incited outrage.
Mr.
Trump has called Mrs. Clinton “shrill” and used a vulgar variation of a
Yiddish term to describe her 2008 loss to Barack Obama. He criticized
Mrs. Fiorina’s face and said listening to the former tech executive gave
him a “massive headache.” And he has had a running battle with Fox
News’s Ms. Kelly, implying that she had been agitated during the first
Republican debate because she was menstruating.
Kathy
Potts, a Trump supporter in Iowa who is a former chairwoman of the Linn
County Republican Party, called Mr. Trump a bully and said she was
offended by his insults of women. But with a son in the Army about to be
sent to Iraq, Ms. Potts stands behind Mr. Trump because she believes he
will be strong on national security. “He’s the one I’d pick to best
protect Jason,” she said.
In
surveys and focus groups, Republican women say their top issue is
national security and safety, which should help Mr. Trump. But
strategists say developments may force many women to rethink their
priorities.
Christine
Matthews, a researcher who advises Republicans on how to win female
voters, said Mr. Trump would lose conservative women in droves in a
general election because they would view his temperament — in part
informed by his insults — as unsuitable for the Oval Office. She said
many Republican women were entertaining a once unthinkable possibility:
crossing party lines in November.
“In
conversations I’ve had with women who have worked in Republican
administrations, who have worked for the Republican Party, we’ve moved
from ‘I’d never vote for Donald Trump’ to ‘I might have to vote for Hillary Clinton,’ ” Ms. Matthews said.
Matt Flegenheimer contributed reporting.
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