Vance 'alienating half the electorate' by insulting 'important voting bloc': columnist

17 August 2024

Both the 2016 and 2020 elections were decided by just tens of thousands of ballots across a handful of battleground states. And according to one columnist, Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) is kneecapping former President Donald Trump's path to 270 electoral votes by continuously denigrating women voters.

In her latest column for the Guardian, author Arwa Mahdawi wrote that the GOP's vice presidential nominee continues to be a drag on Trump's efforts to bring more women into the Republican fold. She noted that a resurfaced interview the Ohio Republican had on a podcast showed Vance agreeing with host Eric Weinstein, who said that raising grandchildren was the primary role of the "postmenopausal female" (Vance wrote in his memoir Hillbilly Elegy that he was primarily raised by his grandmother).

"You can listen to the excerpt yourself, if you can bear it, and come to your own conclusions. I think it’s fair to say, however, that Vance certainly doesn’t vocally disagree with Weinstein’s statement," Mahdawi wrote. "He also doesn’t say anything along the lines of, 'Eric, my friend, please don’t refer to women as femaleslike that, it’s creepy and gives off major incel vibes.'"

Mahdawi argued that comment was just the latest blunder for the Trump/Vance ticket when it came to the campaign's enthusiasm gap among women voters. She observed that shortly after the Ohio senator was nominated, a remark he made about "childless cat ladies" supposedly forcing a progressive agenda on Americans came back to haunt him (Vance later apologized to cats but not women in an interview with SiriusXM host Megyn Kelly).

The Guardian columnist also argued that Vance's problem with women voters is exacerbated by being the vice presidential nominee for an adjudicated rapist. She reminded readers of Trump's own problematic record with women, as he was found liable for defamation of writer E. Jean Carroll earlier this year, who also successfully sued him for sexual abuse in 2023.

"Ultimately, it’s difficult to give Vance the benefit of the doubt when it comes to these comments considering his past statements on gender and the sort of people that he surrounds himself with," she wrote. "Donald Trump, the man’s running mate, has been legally branded a sexual predator and is one of the most famous misogynists in the world, for God’s sake!"

In her column, Mahdawi observed that Ohio's junior U.S. senator "seems determined to keep insulting as many women as he can," citing a remark he made in a recent Fox News interview about abortion rights. When Fox News host Laura Ingraham prodded him on how suburban women may vote given the ongoing GOP assault on abortion, Vance downplayed concern over how much the issue of reproductive freedom would affect the election and asserted that "normal" voters won't have the issue on their minds when they go to the polls.

"I don’t buy that ... I think most suburban women care about the normal things that most Americans care about," he said.

But according to Mahdawi, abortion is a significant motivator for women. She cited an April survey by the Wall Street Journal finding that nearly 40% of suburban women voters said abortion was a "make-or-break issue" for them in November.

"All of which to say: please keep talking, JD, you’re doing a great job of alienating half of the electorate! Kamala Harris already has a massive lead with likely women voters in the polls and Vance seems to be doing his damnedest to make the gender gap grow," she wrote.

Click here to read Mahdawi's column in full.

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