Women increasingly dislike Donald Trump, white men aren't voting for Hillary Clinton

Hillary Clinton talks with a supporter in North Carolina

(Image credit: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

Donald Trump has a problem with women, and Hillary Clinton has a problem among white men, according to polls, exit polling, and political strategists.

In a Reuters-Ipsos poll taken March 1-15, half of likely female voters said they have a "very unfavorable" opinion of Trump, up from 40 percent in October. His numbers are better among men, where his "very unfavorable" numbers are 36 percent, and Republican women, 60 percent of whom have viewed him favorably for months, but more women have voted in presidential elections than men since 1996, Reuters says, citing U.S. Census data. "If the presidential election were tomorrow, women would be a big problem for Trump," Republican strategist David Carney tells Reuters. "But he has time to fix it."

Clinton beat Barack Obama among white men in the 2008 primary season, but this year she's losing them to Bernie Sanders — or Donald Trump — in major battleground states, The New York Times reports. On Tuesday, for example, she won all five states but lost among white men in all of them, including by double digits in North Carolina, Missouri, and Ohio, according to exit polls. Democrats have lost the white-male vote in every election since Lyndon Johnson in 1964, but Democratic strategists say Clinton would be in much better shape if she won at least 35 percent of white men, versus the 32 percent Walter Mondale won in his big loss in 1984.

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"Her most serious relationship problem is with white men, on a policy issue front but also stylistically," Democratic pollster Peter Hart tells The Times, "and she is at real risk for running worse than the average Democrat with white males." If Clinton and Trump win their respective nominations, maybe someone can write a book about the Mars-Venus election.

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.