This week, right-wingers lost their minds over women voting for Kamala Harris — and the mere idea of women being allowed to cast votes for whomever they choose.
With polls showing women overwhelmingly backing Harris over Donald Trump, and early voting data showing women voters outnumbering men in swing states, the MAGA meltdown suggests many conservatives may have severely underestimated women in this election. And some of these voters seem justifiably spooked about the potential consequences of aligning themselves with a deeply misogynistic movement.
And some of these voters seem justifiably spooked about the potential consequences of aligning themselves with a deeply misogynistic movement.
Time will tell, but as I see it, this election was always going to hinge on many women’s fury over the harm inflicted by the first Trump presidency and their fears about further harm in a second term — and whether these things can move them to vote for Harris.
On that front, there had already been some worrying signs for the GOP. The electoral backlash to the overturning of Roe v. Wade by Trump-aligned Supreme Court justices gave Republicans a peek at what could be in store if they doubled down on literally life-threatening chauvinism. But that’s the route they’ve chosen.
Activist Shannon Watts summed up the energy fueling many women quite well in this week’s MSNBC special on women voters, hosted by Joy Reid and Alex Wagner.
Watts said women, particularly white women, have broadly discovered that the excuse some men give for backing Trump — that they’re doing so for economic reasons — is a cover for what their vote is really about: controlling women and wielding power over them. Trump and his movement, I’d argue, have made this increasingly clear in a variety of ways. And Watts believes women are fed up with the facade.
“This idea that somehow it’s the economy that men care about — I don’t think that’s true. I think it’s preserving the patriarchy, and I think women see that, and they want to burn it down,” Watts said.
That energy she’s talking about aligns with what I’ve heard from women voters, Democratic pollsters, Harris-Walz campaign officials and others who’ve been measuring women’s enthusiasm in the lead-up to Election Day. Whether it means burning down the patriarchy or building up democracy, women appear eager to do the work at the ballot box.
Whether it means burning down the patriarchy or building up democracy, women appear eager to do the work at the ballot box.
I recently spoke with Gabrielle Wyatt, who founded The Highland Project, a nonpartisan organization that helps empower Black women leaders. In August, the nonprofit released a poll on Black women voters — and, in short, it found that they are zeroed in and have “incredibly high” motivation to “show their political power.” More than 80% of survey participants said they’re “very motivated” to vote, and 94% said fighting racism and discrimination are the most important issues this election cycle.
This may have something to do with recent reports that Black women — a key Democratic voting bloc — are helping drive a surge of early voters in the crucial states of Georgia and Pennsylvania. Wyatt told me that Black women prioritizing the fight against discrimination doesn’t mean they don’t care about “kitchen table” issues, such as the economy, but rather that these women tend to see these issues as inextricably linked to the fight for equality.
I asked her to expound on that, because that idea aligns with Harris’ messaging about women’s economic well-being being tied to the fight against misogyny. I wrote about the vice president’s artful explanation of this when she appeared on the “Call Her Daddy” podcast. Wyatt explained why the messaging appears to be resonating:
It’s important to begin to tie some of these seemingly isolated issues in our research together to say that when we’re in a system where 94% of Black women are saying their top concern is racism and discrimination, when they’re saying that they’re concerned about the rise of white nationalism, when they’re saying the Black maternal health crisis is a thing, and the mental health crisis is a thing, we have to ask ourselves: Are we creating an economy that centers the well-being of Black women? Are we creating a democracy that centers the well-being of Black women, or are we creating something else?
Wyatt said candidates who tie these issues together speak to many Black women’s holistic ideas of safety — which includes their economic stability, the safety of their communities, and their ability to make their own health choices. Harris has homed in on that messaging in her outreach to women throughout the campaign, and it at least appears to be bearing some fruit.
We’ll soon learn whether this is enough to win her the White House. But for now, it’s clearly making MAGA world sweat.
Ja’han Jones is an MS NOW opinion blogger. He previously wrote The ReidOut Blog.