Democrats Lose Women Voters to GOP as Abortion Focus Fades

The uproar over the Supreme Court's overturning of Dobbs is fading as a political motivating factor, according to a new survey.

A New York Times/Siena College poll found that surveyed voters have flipped from Democrats to Republicans in anticipation of the November 8 election. The economy and inflation have surged past issues like reproductive rights that initially galvanized swaths of the electorate, jumping from 36 percent in a July survey to 44 percent now.

The survey of 792 likely voters nationwide conducted by phone shows that 49 percent of respondents said they planned to vote for a Republican representative in Congress, compared to 45 percent who said they intend to vote Democrat.

It represents a swing from a survey conducted in September, when Democrats maintained a 1-point edge over the opposition.

Potentially the starkest data point from this particular poll is the major swing of independent female voters. Those voters in September favored Democrats by 14 points, yet now support Republicans by 18 points.

Republicans have gained an advantage overall among independents, now possessing a 10-point lead after being down 3 points to Democrats one month ago.

"It's all about cost," Gerard Lamoureux, a 51-year-old Democratic retiree in Newtown, Connecticut, told the Times on why he is planning to vote Republican. "The price of gas and groceries are through the roof. And I want to eat healthy, but it's cheaper for me to go to McDonald's and get a little meal than it is to cook dinner."

Another Democrat-turned-Republican is 37-year-old Robin Ackerman, who told the Times that Republicans are "more geared towards business."

While she disagrees "1,000 percent" with the Supreme Court's overturning of Roe v. Wade, she said it's not the most important issue.

"I'm more worried about other things," Ackerman said.

Inflation rose 0.4 percent between August and September, with the overall number now at 8.2 percent. That has led to food at grocery stores being 13 percent more expensive than last year, including cereals and bakery products increasing 16.2 percent year over year, and dairy and related products rising 15.9 percent in the same time period.

This survey follows a previous The Washington Post/ABC News poll from mid-September that majorities trust Republicans over Democrats in dealing with inflation and the economy.

In that poll, 85 percent of registered voters said the economy was either very important or one of the most important issues in deciding their midterm vote in the midterms.

It is a tough position for Democrats and President Joe Biden, the latter of whom has his highest approval rating in nine months at 46 percent according to Fox News.

Independent Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont has warned against left-leaning candidates running strictly on abortion, calling it "political malpractice for Democrats to ignore the state of the economy and allow Republican lies and distortions" about inflation and the impacts of Democrats' domestic policies "to go unanswered."

Nouriel Roubini, a former senior adviser to Obama's treasury secretary, expects a recession in 2023. He said the global economy is on track to a "slow-motion train wreck."

Biden recently told CNN's Jake Tapper that he doesn't expect a recession, but if it does occur, "it'll be a very slight recession."

"Everybody's hurting right now," David Neiheisel, a 48-year-old insurance salesman and Republican in Indianapolis, told the New York Times. "Inflation, interest rates, the cost of gas, the cost of food, the cost of my property taxes, my utilities—I mean, everything's gone up astronomically, and it's going to collapse."

The New York Times/Siena Poll has a margin of error of +/- 4.1 percent.