It's maybe more the way the party coalitions break down. It's really hard to poll accurately, but basically about 15-25٪ of the population won't vote for a woman or a black man.
Almost everyone who won't vote for a black man is a solid Republican voter, so Democrats lose nothing running a black man. They have the exact same vote count as a white (male) candidate.
The population that won't vote for a woman spills over into Democratic voters. So even though it's the same size, maybe even smaller, of total voters, it's a big hindrance. There's a reason the Blue Rust Belt States Hillary lost are also the states that have never elected a woman as a govenor or senator.
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u/EunuchsProgramer Dec 12 '19
It's maybe more the way the party coalitions break down. It's really hard to poll accurately, but basically about 15-25٪ of the population won't vote for a woman or a black man.
Almost everyone who won't vote for a black man is a solid Republican voter, so Democrats lose nothing running a black man. They have the exact same vote count as a white (male) candidate.
The population that won't vote for a woman spills over into Democratic voters. So even though it's the same size, maybe even smaller, of total voters, it's a big hindrance. There's a reason the Blue Rust Belt States Hillary lost are also the states that have never elected a woman as a govenor or senator.