An important November voting bloc: Married moms
(CBS News) In a presidential campaign that remains close, the outcome could very well be decided by a few swing voters in a handful of battleground states. One of those states is Florida.
While Florida is the biggest electoral prize "up for grabs" this November, the top two concerns among voters there are the economy and health care, according to a recent CBS News poll. Those are two issues very much on the mind of a key group of voters there -- married women with children.
Kelly O'Brien worries unless the economy grows faster, opportunities for her 15-year-old son will be limited.
"I know several moms that their kids are graduating college, and they can't get a job. Some of them are getting their MBAs, and they get out of school, and they can't get a job," O'Brien said.
O'Brien believes a catalyst for her real estate development company will be lower taxes under Mitt Romney, letting her keep more money.
"The government's getting it, and we're not able to put it back into our business and hire people and create jobs," O'Brien said.
But Veronica Kreemer, a mother of a 16-year-old girl and business systems analyst, rejects Romney's proposed tax cuts for top earners.
"He sounds like he wants to place the burden on the middle class again, and the middle class are the ones that are hurting," Kreemer said.
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Kreemer believes President Obama now has the economy on the right track and is skeptical that Romney has the right resume.
"There's some perception for some reason that a business person is going to get us out of this mess, when it was business people got us into this mess," Kreemer said.
Carlyn Bullock, a mother of two teenage boys, went to work for a legal services company when her husband's landscaping business soured. She's backing Romney.
"Since President Obama took office, my husband lost countless accounts. It really hit our family hard," Bullock said.
Yet, as a breast cancer survivor, Bullock objects mostly to the president's health care reform.
"My biggest concern is that medicine is going to end up being rationed, somebody is going to decide whether I can receive care or not receive care," Bullock said.
Doctor Mona Mangatt disagrees. She's an allergist and believes the Obama reform -- requiring every American to get insurance -- will deliver better care.
"Every day in my practice I have patients that can't see me, because they don't have insurance, or they have deductibles that are so high that they can't afford the treatments or the costs to see me, or they can't afford the medicines that I do prescribe them," Mangatt said.
A mother of four kids ages 3 to 9, Mangatt believes as more Americans get preventive care, overall medical costs will go down.
"If we don't do something, we will continue to have more uninsured, continue to have people that are suffering, going bankrupt because they can't afford their health care," Mangatt said.
Like the women we interviewed, about 95 percent of Florida voters say they've already made up their minds about who they'll vote for in November.
