Younger Voters Least Likely To Elect Female President But Want More Women In Gov’t, Poll Says

The majority of voters want more women in elected office, according to a new American University poll released on Monday.

The survey, first reported on by Politico, found that 54% of voters said there are “too few women” in elected office. Meanwhile, 35% of respondents said there are “about the right number” of women currently serving in office and 11% said there were “too many” women in elected office.

The poll found that younger voters are the least likely to support a female president being elected, with 75% of women under 50 being open to voting for a woman as president, while 80% of men in the same age bracket said the same. Comparatively, 87% of men and women over 50 said they were open to electing a female president, the poll says.

Moreover, 4 in 10 voters – particularly Republicans and younger respondents – said they knew someone who would not vote for a female president, according to the poll. Still, the poll also found that 83% of Americans said they believe it is important to elect more women.

“This survey reveals a powerful paradox,” Viva de Vicq, the lead pollster of the survey, told Politico. “Voters trust women on the issues that matter most and want to see more women in office. Yet when asked about the presidency, bias and narrow expectations resurface.”

Of Democrats surveyed, 92% said it is important to elect more women, compared to 77% of Republicans who said the same, according to the poll. The survey also showed that 91% of voters aged 18 to 34 believe it is important that more women get elected, while 80% of voters aged 50 to 64 felt the same.

Additionally, 26% of voters said they prefer that the first female president would be “tough” instead of “likable,” compared to 19% who responded it was more important for her to be seen as “likable” and 56% who said it is equally important to be seen as both.

The survey results come in the aftermath of President Donald Trump defeating former Vice President Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential election. In late July, Harris passed on entering the 2026 race for California’s governor’s mansion, igniting speculation that she may seek the White House in 2028.

Trump similarly bested former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in the 2016 White House election.

Of those surveyed, 32% said the 2028 White House race will be the “most important” election of their lifetime so far, while 35% of respondents said it will be “more important than most.” Meanwhile, 26% of voters said the 2028 presidential race will be “no more or less important than any other election” and just 7% said it will be “less important” than most elections, according to the poll.

A New York Times (NYT) analysis of voter registration data released in August notably found that the Democratic Party lost millions of registered voters between the 2020 and 2024 elections, while the Republican Party added voters during the same period of time. Some Democrats have reportedly expressed concerns about the state of their party following the release of the NYT’s analysis.

The nationwide poll of 801 male and female registered voters was conducted from September 3 to 6. The margin of error for the dataset overall is plus or minus 3.46% at the 95% confidence level.