In the end, women did not save Harris at ballot box

People react as US Vice President Kamala Harris speaks at Howard University in Washington, DC, on November 6, 2024. Agence France-Presse

WASHINGTON — She needed their support, but it wasn’t enough: Kamala Harris failed to get as many women to back her as she had hoped, despite a presidential campaign heavily focused on abortion access, in the face of Donald Trump’s macho rhetoric.

Exit polls conducted by CNN showed that the Democratic vice president had an eight-point advantage among women voters — but that was nearly half what Joe Biden had mustered four years ago.

On the flip side, the Republican once and future president had a 13-point lead over his rival with men, as opposed to an eight-point boost when he faced Biden in 2020.

READ: Harris delivers concession speech; urges supporters to keep fighting

“I think there were high expectations going into the election about how women would vote,” Sabrina Karim, a professor at Cornell University, told AFP.

“But it is always important to remember that women are not a monolithic group,” and “their concerns are multi-faceted,” Karim noted.

The CNN exit poll shows Harris’s dominance with Black women voters, for example, while Trump did better with white women.

“The Harris campaign’s strong focus on abortion likely energized some women to vote, but a single issue was not enough to bring a diverse range of women to vote for Harris,” Karim said.

Immigration and the economy

Nathalie Feldgun, a lawyer in New York, said she felt it was time for Trump to return to the Oval Office.

“The country doesn’t have a border. It’s not a country,” said Feldgun, who had been persuaded by the Republican’s stark anti-immigration rhetoric.

READ: What went wrong for Harris? Experts weigh in

The economy — and inflation in particular — played a major role in the election, too.

In many US households, women are the primary shoppers, and felt the pinch as prices of basic goods soared.

“I have five children, and the economy for the past three-and-a-half years was bad,” Tessa Bonet, a 51-year-old immigrant from Guyana who lives in New York, told AFP at Trump’s giant Madison Square Garden rally.

“I’m here for change and my eyes are wide open,” she said. “Trump means well for us — yes, regular Americans.”

Harris did not make her identity as a Black woman also of South Asian descent a major part of the campaign, relying on surrogates like former first lady Michelle Obama, Republican former lawmaker Liz Cheney or celebrities like Beyonce to do it for her.

But neither Obama’s powerful feminist speeches nor an endorsement from pop megastar Taylor Swift prevented Trump from scoring a decisive victory, despite the repeated sexist remarks he made at his opponent’s expense.

Just a week ago, he made waves when he told one campaign rally in an anti-crime appeal: “I want to protect the women of our country… whether the women like it or not.”

‘Gender dynamics’

The 78-year-old Trump even called the 60-year-old Harris “mentally disabled” and “retarded,” and suggested she would become “a playtoy” for other world leaders if elected.

At the last minute, the Harris campaign tried to bet that women in conservative households would secretly vote for her despite the misgivings of their husbands, but the strategy was a flop.

In an ad financed by a progressive Christian group, and narrated by Oscar winner Julia Roberts, a woman is shown voting for Harris — and hiding it from her apparently Trump-leaning spouse.

“In the one place in America where women still have a right to choose, you can vote any way you want, and no one will ever know,” Roberts says.

“Did you make the right choice?” the husband asks his wife, who responds: “Sure did, honey,” exchanging a smile and a wink with another woman voter.

“That was an appealing idea, but now we know it’s pretty much just wishful thinking,” said Alex Keena, a professor of political science at Virginia Commonwealth University.

For Karim, “gender dynamics are not limited to women, but what masculine appeal Trump has for a diverse range of men.”

Exit polls showed that Trump got a boost from Latino voters, while Biden had largely beaten him with that part of the electorate four years ago.