Americans are more likely to see Harris' gender as a hurdle than they were for Clinton: AP-NORC poll

WASHINGTON (AP) — Americans are more likely to believe that being a woman will hurt Kamala Harris ' chances in the November election, compared with eight years ago when Hillary Clinton was running. And they are more likely to believe that Donald Trump 's gender will help him.

A new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research indicates a shift in attitudes among U.S. adults in the time between the candidacies of the first and second female major-party nominees.

About 4 in 10 Americans think Harris’ gender will hurt her chances of getting elected this fall. During the 2016 campaign, about 3 in 10 said the same about Clinton’s gender.

The shift in attitudes is largely driven by Democrats — particularly Democratic men. About 3 in 10 Democratic men thought Clinton’s gender would hurt her “somewhat” or “a lot” prior to her loss to Trump. About half now say that about Harris.

“I would say this country doesn’t really have an outstanding track record of supporting female candidates,” said Julian Zeng, a 34-year-old copy editor and writer from California who is a Democrat.

Democratic women have also grown more likely to say being a woman could be a hurdle for a presidential candidate: About 4 in 10 Democratic women said Clinton’s gender would hurt her, and about half say that about Harris now. Republican men only shifted slightly, and Republican women’s views remained stable.

Americans are also more likely to see Trump’s gender as something that will help his chances of being elected. About 4 in 10 U.S. adults now say that being a man is something that will help him, up from around 3 in 10 when the same question was asked in an AP-NORC poll during his 2016 campaign.

The poll’s findings seem to bolster arguments for the way both candidates have addressed gender in their campaigns.

Harris focuses less on the history-making potential of her win than Clinton did, even though the possibility of electing a woman president could enthuse her supporters. She does emphasize reproductive rights in her campaign and Trump's nomination of three of the Supreme Court justices who voted to overturn a nationally guaranteed right to abortion.

Trump, who for years has preferred to blast the Village People’s song “Macho Man” as he enters and exits his campaign rallies, has courted younger men and promoted a masculine image with appearances at mixed-martial arts events and football games. He has recently started calling himself a “protector” of women.

Carlos Stallworth, a 59-year-old Republican from California, said Trump’s gendered appeal comes through in his campaigning, calling the former president “a guy’s guy, a man’s man kind of guy.”

Stallworth, who said he’s undecided but leaning toward Trump in November, said he is skeptical that Harris can win and feels that she’s not coming off as a forceful would-be commander-in-chief by not releasing more detailed plans, particularly on issues like the economy, that will help her overcome attitudes in “a male-chauvinist world.”

“It’s going to take a little bit more for her than just like the average guy,” he said.

Some voters said Trump’s persona and rhetoric might help Harris get past baked-in attitudes about women in power.

“Were it not Trump, I think that it would hurt her,” said Elizabeth Aguilar, a 48-year-old university professor from Illinois.

Aguilar, a Democrat, said she thinks some voters may still be uncomfortable with the idea of a female president.

“But I think that his comments and his misogynist attitude are so far out that people may be willing to overlook the fact that she’s a woman," she said.

Only about one-quarter of Americans say Harris’ gender “won’t make a difference” to her chances of getting elected this fall, down from when one-third said that about Clinton in 2016. Slightly less than half say Trump’s gender won’t have an impact, down from around 6 in 10 during his first run.

In a recent interview with the AP conducted prior to the poll, Clinton said she’s “feeling really optimistic” that Harris will win. She said she also feels Harris will benefit from the fact that the nation has become more accustomed to the image of a female presidential candidate, having seen not only her run eight years ago but also a crowded Democratic presidential primary four years later that included multiple female candidates.

“We now don’t just have one image of a person who happens to be a woman who ran for president, namely me,” Clinton said. “We’ve got a broader view, and I think that’s all for the good.”

Cherene Bates, a 51-year-old Republican from Pocatello, Idaho, said she hasn’t decided who she’s supporting in November, but she is optimistic that Harris’ gender will not be an impediment for other voters.

“I really hope that people wouldn’t discredit her because she’s a female,” Bates said.

She said it’s possible gender played a role in Clinton’s loss in 2016, but she hopes it didn’t.

“As a nation, I think we still were ready to switch gears, to have a different frame of mind and elect a female president,” Bates said. “I hope that we’re even more so now.”

Price reported from New York. Associated Press writer Jocelyn Noveck in New York contributed to this report.

The poll of 2,028 adults was conducted Sept. 12-16, 2024, using a sample drawn from NORC’s probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error for all respondents is plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.

This combination of photos shows Vice President Kamala Harris, left, on Aug. 7, 2024, and Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump on July 31, 2024. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)

McALESTER, Okla. (AP) — Oklahoma was preparing to execute a man Thursday while waiting for Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt to decide whether to spare the death row inmate's life and accept a rare clemency recommendation from the state's parole board.

Emmanuel Littlejohn, 52, was set to die by lethal injection for his role in the 1992 shooting death of a convenience store owner during a robbery.

In six years as governor, Stitt has granted clemency only once and denied recommendations from the state's Pardon and Parole Board in three other cases. On Wednesday, a spokeswoman for Stitt said the governor had met with prosecutors and Littlejohn’s attorneys but had not reached a decision.

The execution was scheduled for 10 a.m. at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary. Littlejohn would be the 14th person executed in Oklahoma under Stitt’s administration.

Another execution was set for later Thursday in Alabama, and if both are carried out, it would be the first time in decades that five death row inmates were put to death in the U.S. within one week.

In Oklahoma, an appellate court on Wednesday denied a last-minute legal challenge to the constitutionality of the state’s lethal injection method of execution. A similar appeal filed in federal court also was rejected Thursday.

Littlejohn would be the third Oklahoma inmate put to death this year. He was 20 when prosecutors say he and co-defendant Glenn Bethany robbed the Root-N-Scoot convenience store in south Oklahoma City in June 1992. The store's owner, Kenneth Meers, 31, was killed.

During video testimony to the Pardon and Parole Board last month, Littlejohn apologized to Meers' family but denied firing the fatal shot. Littlejohn's attorneys pointed out that the same prosecutor tried Bethany and Littlejohn in separate trials using a nearly identical theory, even though there was only one shooter and one bullet that killed Meers.

But prosecutors told the board that two teenage store employees who witnessed the robbery both said Littlejohn, not Bethany, fired the fatal shot. Bethany was sentenced to life in prison without parole.

Littlejohn's attorneys also argued that killings resulting from a robbery are rarely considered death penalty cases and that prosecutors today would not have pursued the ultimate punishment.

“It is evident that Emmanuel would not have been sentenced to death if he’d been tried in 2024 or even 2004,” attorney Caitlin Hoeberlein told the board.

Littlejohn was prosecuted by former Oklahoma County District Attorney Bob Macy, who was known for his zealous pursuit of the death penalty and secured 54 death sentences during more than 20 years in office.

Because of the board’s 3-2 recommendation, Stitt had the option of commuting Littlejohn’s sentence to life in prison without parole. The governor has appointed three of the board's members.

In 2021, Stitt granted clemency to Julius Jones, commuting his sentence to life without parole just hours before Jones was scheduled to receive a lethal injection. He denied clemency recommendations from the board for Bigler Stouffer, James Coddington and Phillip Hancock, all of whom were executed.

The executions in Oklahoma and Alabama would make for 1,600 executions nationwide since the death penalty was reinstated by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1976, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.

FILE - This booking photo provided by the Oklahoma Department of Corrections shows Emmanuel Littlejohn, Feb. 8, 2023. (Oklahoma Department of Corrections via AP, File)

FILE - Augustina Sanders hugs Kim Ludwig, a paralegal in the Federal Public Defender's Office in Oklahoma City, after the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board voted 3-2 to recommend clemency for Sanders' brother, Emmanuel Littlejohn, Aug. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Sean Murphy, File)