Is Donald Trump right that women voters don't like Hillary Clinton?

Impact of Trump and Clinton's Northeast primary landslides

Republican front-runner Donald Trump has accused Hillary Clinton of playing "the woman's card," just as he's maintained that those same female voters "don't like her" very much.

"Look how well I did with women tonight," Trump said Tuesday from the hotel lobby of Trump Tower, aiming to draw a comparison between his support among the demographic versus Clinton's. He added that Clinton "has nothing else going" for her, and posited that if Clinton "were a man, I don't think she would get five percent of the vote."

But do the numbers bear out Trump's claims?

It's Donald Trump's nomination to lose

In a hypothetical November match-up between Trump and Clinton, among registered women voters, Clinton leads Trump 58 - 31 percent, according to a *CBS News national poll this month. In comparison, 42 percent of men would cast their ballots for Clinton versus 50 percent that would support Trump.

While he has won more support among GOP women compared to other Republicans, a high percentage of women voters nationwide hold negative views of Donald Trump -- 69 percent have an unfavorable view of him, according to a CBS News national poll this month. Just 19 percent have a favorable view of him.


Clinton's numbers are a little better, though still on the low side. Forty-five percent of registered women voters have an unfavorable view of her, and 37 percent view her favorably, according to the poll.

In a general election face-off with the other potential Republican candidates, Clinton still has an advantage among female voters -- though the margins aren't quite as high.

Against Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, Clinton would win 50 percent to 35 percent. Against Ohio Gov. John Kasich, she would lead by just nine points, 47 percent to 38 percent.

Regardless of the attitude women hold toward Trump, he could still face an uphill battle with women in a general election match-up anyway, if history is any guide. According to Gallup, women have supported the Democratic candidate in the last six elections.

And at least one prominent female Republican has already chastised Trump for his comments about Clinton playing "the woman's card."

"I do think that was a mistake, absolutely," former Texas Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison told MSNBC Friday. "I think he should be going on the issues... It's time for him to start talking substance."

Hutchison added that "we don't need any more of these personal slights" on the campaign trail.

There's also one more potential problem for Trump in the general election -- more women vote than men, and that's been true in every presidential election since 1964, the Center for American Women and Politics points out.

*The CBS News poll was conducted April 8-12 among a random sample of 1,320 adults nationwide, including 1,098 registered voters. The sample of registered voters has a margin of error of three percentage points.

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