This is an adapted excerpt from the Oct. 30 episode of "Alex Wagner Tonight."
With just days to go until Election Day, Vice President Kamala Harris is framing the choice on Nov. 5 as a fight for freedom. At a rally in North Carolina on Wednesday, Harris set the stakes.
“It is a fight for freedom, like the fundamental freedom of a woman to be able to make decisions about her own body and not have her government tell her what to do,” Harris told the crowd in Raleigh.
Harris is framing the choice on Nov. 5 as a fight for freedom.
“And we all remember how we got here,” she continued. “Donald Trump hand selected three members of the United States Supreme Court with the intention that they would undo the protections of Roe v. Wade, they did, and now in America, one in three women lives in a state with a Trump abortion ban.”
According to the final national New York Times-Siena poll, likely voters ranked abortion as the second most important issue next to immigration. Among women, abortion is tied with the economy at number one. That’s part of what’s driving the largest gender gap in our country’s electoral history.
To that end, Trump has spent much of his time on the campaign trail on a tour of the “manoverse:” Speaking on podcasts to the young men who listen to Joe Rogan, platforming angry male comedians like Tony Hinchcliffe and offering speaking slots to misogynist businessmen who have compared the vice president to a prostitute.
Even Trump supporter and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley isn’t down for the former president’s approach:
“You had speakers at Madison Square Garden referring to her and her pimps,” Haley said on Fox News on Tuesday. “That is not the way to win women. ... This is not a time for them to get overly masculine with this bromance thing that they’ve got going. 53% of the electorate are women. Women will vote.”
And when Trump has spoken to women, he has promised to be their hero, their “protector.” At a rally on Tuesday night in Wisconsin, Trump went on a rant about “imported criminal migrants” and proclaimed he would protect women "whether the women like it or not."
The Harris campaign has a totally different message for these women: Protect yourselves … at the ballot box.
In a new ad narrated by Julia Roberts, the Democrats are reminding women their vote is their voice. In the TV spot, the actress tells voters that “what happens in the booth, stays in the booth.”
It’s more than a tagline. It’s a message echoed by Harris surrogates, including former Republican Rep. Liz Cheney and former first lady Michelle Obama.
Women are casting mail-in ballots, voting early and making Election Day plans to vote for Harris — even while knowing that the men in their lives are voting for Trump.
“You can vote your conscience and not ever have to say a word to anybody,” Cheney said last week in Michigan. “There will be millions of Republicans who do that on Nov. 5.”
“If you are a woman who lives in a household of men that don’t listen to you or value your opinion, just remember that your vote is a private matter,” Obama said on Saturday, also in Michigan. “Regardless of the political views of your partner, you get to choose. You get to use your judgment and cast your vote for yourself and the women in your life.”
“Remember, women, standing up for what is best for us can make the difference in this election,” Obama reminded the crowd.
And it seems like at least some women are listening. Across the country, they’re casting mail-in ballots, voting early and making Election Day plans to vote for Harris — even while knowing that the men in their lives are voting for Trump. Some are even not-so-secretly posting about it on TikTok and making “canceling out your husband’s vote” a trend on social media.
But, with the election quickly coming to a close, the questions remain: How many of these stealthy female voters actually exist, and what does it mean for the overall math when polls close on Tuesday night?