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Majority of Americans perceive GOP as out of touch with women

Former Governor of Arkansas Mike Huckabee. (File/UPI/Kevin Dietsch)
Former Governor of Arkansas Mike Huckabee. (File/UPI/Kevin Dietsch) | License Photo

WASHINGTON, Feb. 7 (UPI) -- A majority of Americans believe the Republican Party doesn't understand the problems and concerns of women, a CNN poll released Friday indicates.

Fifty-five percent of all respondents say the GOP doesn't understand women, while 59 percent of women surveyed and 64 percent of women respondents over age 50 believe the same, results show.

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"That last number is intriguing, since older women are more likely to vote Republican than younger women. Yet younger women don't have as much of a problem with the GOP on this measure," CNN Polling Director Keating Holland said.

"That suggests that the problem women have with the Republican Party may be related less to the policy positions the GOP takes and more related to the attitudes behind those policies and the tone the party takes when addressing them," he added.

"When you look at our position on issues, a lot of times majority of Americans agree with our positions," Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers of Washington, the highest-ranking female Republican in the U.S. House, told CNN. "But it's the way that we talk about it that doesn't resonate and we have to do a better job. I think it's fair to say there have been some comments which are offensive and they're not representative of the entire Republican Party."

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"There's more work to be done. Republicans are good at speaking from our head about facts and figures. We also need to speak from our heart and make sure people know that we care," said McMorris Rodgers, who delivered the GOP response to President Obama's State of the Union address last week.

Sixty-three percent of all Americans and 62 percent of American women said the Democratic Party understands women, results showed.

The telephone poll of 1,010 adults nationwide conducted Jan. 31 to Feb. 2 for CNN by ORC International has a margin of error of 3 percentage points.

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