Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D., Mass.) struggles to appeal personally to voters despite her popular policies, Axios reporter Alexi McCammond said on MSNBC Monday.
McCammond discussed her article arguing that voters find Warren's left-wing policies appealing but have "qualms" about the Massachusetts senator's personality. Voters "liked things like canceling student loan debt, they liked the idea of taxing corporations and the wealthy because they feel like it will help people like them personally, but they didn't like Elizabeth Warren's personality," McCammond said.
McCammond reached her conclusions after speaking with a small focus group of female voters. Seven of the voters supported Barack Obama in 2012 but Donald Trump in 2016, and two supported Mitt Romney and Hillary Clinton.
She said dislike of Warren's personality reveals the "inherent, almost implicit sexism that a lot of voters have or feel about women in leadership that they don't just necessarily attribute to people like men in leadership."
"Although they liked Warren's policy ideas and even went so far as to say they wish Donald Trump would start talking about those policy ideas, they're not ready to embrace her just yet because they have some qualms about her personally," McCammond continued.
The focus group was conducted in Wisconsin, a key swing state that helped deliver Trump the presidency in 2016.
Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton did not campaign in the state during her 2016 run. Trump narrowly defeated her there by a margin of less than 23,000 votes.
A Marquette poll from early September showed Warren tied with Trump at 45 percent support in the state. Warren's two primary rivals for the Democratic nomination were beating Trump in the poll, with Sen. Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.) ahead 48 percent to 44 percent and former vice president Joe Biden ahead 51 percent to 42 percent.