photo by: Elvyn Jones

Celinda Lake, president of Lake Research Partners of Washington, D.C., shares polling insights into this year's elections at a Emily Taylor and Marilyn Stokstad Women's Leadership Lecture on Tuesday in the Kansas University Union.

One of the biggest obstacles Donald Trump faces in his bid to win the presidency is his unpopularity with single women, a Washington, D.C., pollster told listeners Tuesday at the University of Kansas.

Speaking at an Emily Taylor and Marilyn Stokstad Women’s Leadership Lecture on Tuesday at the Kansas Union, Democratic pollster Celinda Lake told about 70 listeners the Republican nominee was polling terribly with single women.

“Donald Trump is like the worst date they’ve ever been on,” she said.

In a 45-minute presentation, Lake, president of Lake Research Partners, framed the 2016 presidential campaign and election cycle in general with the polling figures her firm and others have gathered. As a Democratic pollster and consultant, she mostly presented the figures from the point of view of that party.

Lake started her presentation by noting President Barack Obama’s favorability numbers have rebounded in recent months, and she said he now stood at a 51-percent favorability rating. There’s been a lot of debate about what was driving that increase, with things like a better performing economy and foreign policy suggested as the causes, Lake said. Her take was a bit different.

“The single thing that correlates with the time people started thinking Obama was doing a good job as president was when Donald Trump became the Republican nominee,” she said.

Nonetheless, Lake said a number of times in her presentation that this year’s presidential election is tight. The cause she cited near the opening of her remarks was the general feeling among the electorate that the country is “stuck” and in need of change.

The big concern is the economy, Lake said, but men and women tend to approach that issue from different perspectives. Women tend to focus on the “kitchen table” economics of wages, health care, prices of household goods and caretaker issues, Lake said, while men tend to be more concerned about larger issues such as economic growth.

The gender divide among parties in recent presidential elections, with more women supporting Democrats and more men supporting Republicans, is more pronounced this year, Lake said. She said the trend for strong support from women for Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton is uniform among all ethnic voting blocks, but does break down when comparing married and single women. A small majority of married women support Trump, Lake said. It is an advantage for Clinton that this will be the first election in which more single women than married women will cast ballots for president, she said.

Another plus for Clinton and Democrats is that more women than ever before plan to vote for different presidential candidates than the ones their husbands support, Lake said. That may come as a surprise to many husbands confident in what Lake called the “sure, honey” factor. Seventy percent of husbands said they thought their wives would vote like they do, but 49 percent of wives said that would be the case, she said.

Voter dissatisfaction about the two major party candidates manifests differently across genders, too, Lake said. Men are more likely to vote for third-party candidates, while women are more prone to not vote, she said.

That’s a big concern among millennial women who don’t like Trump, Lake said. It’s also a concern in getting them to run for office.

Lake said millennial males were very politically motivated, with 25 percent expressing a desire to run for office. Millennial women, who Lake said are very willing to take risks to start their own businesses, have little desire to seek public office. What they have witnessed this election cycle would only increase that reluctance, she said.

The media and voters judge Clinton and other women candidates much more severely on appearance, Lake said, citing criticism Clinton received for not smiling more during the Commander in Chief forums earlier this month as an example.

“Like she was supposed to smile when talking about Syria and refugees,” Lake said. “Can you imagine anyone saying Trump should smile more?”

Women candidates are caught in a double bind of having to prove their qualifications and also appear likable and personable, while male candidates are more likely to win elections on qualifications alone, Lake said. Women also suffer more severely for mistakes in a campaign, but are more easily forgiven, she said.

Lake said Democrats should call out such sexism when they see it, even if it is aimed at a Republican candidate.

Clinton’s unpopularity as a candidate might not plague her as president should she win. Lake agreed with Clinton’s observation that she was viewed much more favorably while on the job than on the campaign trail.

Lake concluded by saying women could help elect more women to office by voting independently of their partners, giving more money, calling out sexism and running for office themselves.