Melania’s Moment

Melania Trump, former supermodel, Slovenian immigrant and wife of a billionaire running for president, is stepping out onto the campaign trail as her husband’s favorables among women are dropping.

While many candidates’ spouses are quick to jump to the podium to campaign for their significant other, Melania has been relatively silent. Strange, since Melania has a lot of appeal, being both a woman and an immigrant — two demographics with which Trump does not poll well.

[lz_radio_ad]

Melania hit the trail on Monday for her husband in Wisconsin, speaking at a campaign event in Milwaukee where a crowd of roughly 2,000 gathered. She spoke highly of him and took to the podium for just two minutes, addressing the volatile nature of the Republican primary. “As you may know by now, when you attack him he will punch back 10 times harder,” Melania said. “No matter who you are, a man or a woman, he treats everyone equal.”

Melania’s sudden appearance on the campaign trail isn’t coincidental. Polling shows Trump down 10 points to his rival Sen. Ted Cruz in the Badger State.

[lz_third_party includes=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wsRsR-6RWl8″]

What’s more, a new poll released by Gallup shows that 7 in 10 women have a negative opinion of Trump. According to the poll, only 23 percent of women have a favorable opinion of the GOP front-runner. When Trump first began his campaign last summer, Gallup polling showed that 58 percent of women had an unfavorable opinion of him.

[lz_table title=”Trump’s Unfavorables Among Women Voters”]Fox News Poll
67%
|Quinnipiac University
67%
|NBC News/Wall Street Journal
70%
|CNN/ORC
73%
|ABC News/Washington Post
74%
|Gallup
70%
[/lz_table]

The Gallup results match those of Fox News, Quinnipiac University, NBC News/Wall Street Journal, CNN/ORC, and ABC News/Washington Post, which all show his unfavorables with female voters hovering around 70 percent.

On Monday night, Melania made an appearance with her husband in a town hall-style interview with Fox News’ Sean Hannity where she discussed the GOP primary. “Sometimes I feel the retweets sometimes get him in trouble,” Melania said. “Stay away from retweets, if he would only listen, but he’s doing great.”

[lz_third_party includes=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uDH663CSQIQ”]

Of course, the GOP front-runner’s wife was referring to a recent Twitter spat involving the appearance of herself and Heidi Cruz. Trump retweeted an unflattering photo of Cruz’s wife Heidi compared with a photoshopped glam photo of his wife Melania in response to a negative ad featuring a nude photo of his wife.

Melania might just be exactly what Trump needs in order to gain some ground back with women. Her poised and graceful appearance are a complement to his boisterous personality. But will it be enough to win women over?