In 2008, the election was all about Hockey Moms. In 2012, it might be about Soccer Moms.
Sen. Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H., said on Wednesday that gas prices will drive women voters toward Mitt Romney. Women, she said, especially care about the state of the economy, referencing her own two children.
“The mothers, we’re driving our kids around to soccer practices and everything else,” Ayotte said during a Morning Joe appearance. “And now they are paying twice as much at the pump as when this president came into office. I think those issues are going to resonate.”
Ayotte’s pitch comes as a new USA Today/Gallup poll shows the president with an 18-point lead among women voters in swing states. The poll indicates that the women vote will drive the president’s victory in those swing states, and therefore the election.
But Ayotte dismissed the poll results and any suggestion that Romney will have a difficult time swaying women in November. Not only is it too early in the race, but she said women might have been distracted by the contraception issue.
She added, however, that “Most of the women in that poll didn’t even know what either Gov. Romney or the president’s positions were on the contraception issue. And they ranked it last in terms of issues that they cared about.”
In order to move ahead in this area, she said, Romney will need a secret weapon—his wife, Ann, she contends. “She really relates to people,” she said. “I think she’s terrific.” Ayotte continued, saying that if Ann and his daughters-in-law are on the stump, Romney will come ahead in the general.
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