Texas Ebola Patients Nina Pham and Amber Vinson
The Washington Post and Politico both have articles on how rare is the cancellation by President Barack Obama of his campaign travel schedule Wednesday to deal with the Dallas Ebola outbreak. Obama held an emergency cabinet meeting at the White House instead of campaigning for Democrats in New Jersey and Connecticut as news broke of a second American Ebola victim in Dallas.
A terror attack on Christmas Day, Benghazi, beheadings–none of those caused Obama to cancel his campaign or leisure plans.
One reason for Obama canceling the campaign appearances set for Wednesday could be that the Ebola virus has hit a key Democratic Party voting demographic: Single women.
The two American nurses in Dallas who reportedly picked up Ebola from treating Liberian national Thomas Duncan–Nina Pham and Amber Vinson– are both single women in their twenties, twenty-six and twenty-nine years old, respectively. That both women are members of racial minority groups makes it even more politically dangerous for Obama and the Democrats with the midterm elections just weeks away.
Obama worked hard in 2012 to drive up turnout by single by falsely portraying Republicans as waging a ‘war on women.’
NPR’s Mara Liasson reported earlier this year on Obama’s need for single women to turn out in next month’s elections.
“Unmarried women are the single most important demographic this year. But unlike other “it” demographics (remember soccer moms?), single women are not a constituency that’s in play: They’re extremely reliable Democratic supporters.
“In 2012, Barack Obama won the overall women’s vote because of them. Mitt Romney actually won married women — by 7 points. But Obama crushed him with unmarried women, winning that cohort by a whopping 36 percentage points.
“Single women make up about 25 percent of the electorate, and they’re growing fast as marriage rates decline. But while they are reliable supporters for the Democrats — that is, when they vote — they are not reliable voters: Between 2008 and 2010, the participation of unmarried women fell by about 20 points. And between 2012 and 2014, single women’s participation is expected to drop off by about the same rate.“So single women present Democrats with a turnout problem, not a persuasion problem. In that sense, they exemplify the Democrats’ electoral dilemma. The party has built a mighty coalition for presidential elections — young people, women and minorities — but that coalition all but evaporates in midterm elections. If Democrats are going to re-create their presidential coalition in midterm years, single women are a good place to start…”
Knowing that, it’s no wonder Obama hit the panic button Wednesday. If Obama and the Democrats are seen by single women as leaving them vulnerable to Ebola they may not vote Republican next month, but they may just stay home.
