I’ve been catching up on the news after being on vacation, and it seems that women voters have been erased from political discussions. I say this because there has been a bunch of hand-wringing about the polls predicting a David Trone victory in the Maryland Democratic senate primary and the actual outcome, which was a 12 point Angela Alsobrooks victory.
There are 2 points of reality that seem to be missing from these discussions. One is that there in fact there was polling that showed a late move toward Alsobrooks. Second, there was an obvious catalyst for this late break that pundits ignored: late in the campaign cycle, Trone began running some really distasteful attack ads on Alsobrooks’ long history of public service, ads that were clearly rooted in racism and sexism.
In Trone’s first negative ad against Alsobrooks in late April, meanwhile, one of his endorsers said, “the U.S. Senate is not a place for training wheels.” (Since when?) Trone’s team eventually scrubbed that from the ad, although Trone has used the same line itself. The comment prompted 650 Black women in politics to sign a letter saying the phrase was “not only disparaging and dismissive but also echoes tones of misogyny and racism.”
If you’re wondering why Trone lost his lead, wonder no longer. Hi, it’s women. We exist. And we vote.
Nate Cohn tied himself into knots on Monday trying to parse that awful NYT/Siena poll (meaning the awful one that was posted this week, as opposed to that awful one posted any week prior) by looking back at past elections and trying to see the big picture for 2024. Except he didn’t factor in the 2022 midterm election except to note that a “relative it was a “relatively low turnout” election. (NARRATOR: “It was not.”) It might seem weird to leave out the first set of national level elections after the Dobbs decision was handed down, unless your goal is to spread fear.
If your goal is to make your audience feel uneasy, then it makes sense to leave out the election that showed a marked change in the overall electorate. You can’t keep people returning every day to read your thoughts if they don’t feel some sense of despair and urgency to find someone who can explain what is going on.
If you focus on the post-Dobbs elections of 2022, you will see that women have played—and continue to play–a large role in the string of victories of both Democratic candidates and in elections to protect access to women’s healthcare. And while special election electorates and primary electorates and general election electorates are all different, we are consistently seeing a coalition since Dobbs that will turn out to protect access to women’s healthcare, and the core of this coalition is women. Yep, it’s us again. Hi!
This erasure from election dynamics is rooted in the sexist belief that women’s issues are neither real nor important. And it also stems from the fact that “abortion” is a loaded word and has (wrongly) shameful connotations. And I think that’s what leads some people to downplay it as a motivating factor in the general election electorate. But the issue is about more than the singular practice of abortion.
It’s about access to D&Cs which can save women’s lives both during or apart from a miscarriage. It’s about allowing doctors to save the life of the mother in a pregnancy crisis. It’s about a woman decide to end a pregnancy that will cause the fetus crushing pain and possible death right after birth. It’s about a woman making her own private decision whether she can afford in both short and long terms to have a child at that time. It also means added burdens are placed on poor women and families who are already struggling.
It’s about having access to medicine abortion in the privacy of your own home if you live in a state with no access to an abortion provide. Going forward it could mean banning IUDs which many women need for fibroids, endometriosis, or heavy bleeding that can lead to anemia, and the morning after pill, because they’re coming for contraception, too.
Mostly it’s about the basic right for control over our own fucking bodies and our own futures.
Hi, it’s us, women. We exist. And we vote. See you in November.
I agree with the observation that women have been erased from the campaign reporting. This has led to “unexpected” result after “surprising” defeat for the last year or so (as reported by those same media outlets). One would think that after getting the story wrong so much, they’d evaluate their methods and assumptions to see where they’re missing the boat. You know, because they all claim that their first imperative is to get the story right.
yep. if you factor in the role that women have and will continue to play until access to women’s health care is restored, it renders their beloved horse race metaphor false. and if you’re not scared, you won’t keep watching and clicking for the next 6 months.