Earlier than final evening’s debate, I bought a textual content from a buddy who summed up Kamala Harris’s predicament: She has to seem female however not dainty. She must be agency however not nasty. She has to name out Donald Trump’s lies however not be naggy. She has to decorate presidentially however not be blah.
Evidently, ladies candidates face challenges that males don’t—voters query their toughness and are sometimes ambivalent on how they need to focus on id. However on the debate final evening, Harris confirmed that these hurdles aren’t insurmountable.
“I feel she was the clear winner. She was extra presidential,” Religion, a Pennsylvania swing voter (one who supported Trump in 2016 and Joe Biden in 2020), mentioned after the controversy.
I conduct focus teams with voters each week, and I’ve heard one theme come up repeatedly: They usually fear about Harris’s means to face as much as dictators equivalent to Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping.
“Some international locations don’t respect ladies,” Nicole, a swing voter from Arizona, mentioned throughout a gaggle in July. “And so, to have a feminine operating america—I’m all for females, simply not as a president. Sorry, girls.”
Voters don’t have this concern about Trump, a bodily massive man who insults his enemies in probably the most hostile phrases potential.
Susan, a two-time Trump voter from Florida, described Trump’s fashion this fashion final month: “He’s only a large bully. The largest bully on the playground. And in the event you don’t do it his manner, you’re going to pay for it.”
Final evening, Trump was, in a sure sense, a stand-in for strongmen like Putin and Xi, and the voters I spoke with proper after the controversy mentioned that Harris held her personal. They appreciated her means to bait Trump, counter his lies, and look calm whereas doing it. Her choice to level out how simply overseas despots use flattery to affect Trump additionally did her a number of good.
“I used to be truly pleasantly stunned at Harris,” mentioned Jennifer, a swing voter from Georgia. “She addressed many of the points fairly effectively, and he or she gave Donald Trump what different candidates couldn’t. She was just a little bit sarcastic, speaking again with him, which I appreciated.”
Jay, a swing voter from Arizona, mentioned of the controversy: “Her goal of getting beneath his pores and skin to unveil what’s actually behind the scenes—I feel she did a very good job.”
Trump’s workforce has completed itself few favors with ladies throughout this marketing campaign. Feedback by the GOP’s vice-presidential candidate, J. D. Vance, about childless cat girls, giving extra votes to individuals with youngsters, and the position of “postmenopausal females” aren’t simply off-putting; they intensify the ticket’s core vulnerabilities on abortion and ladies’s rights.
“I’ve a very onerous time getting previous the ‘cat girls’ and the way, in the event you’re childless, you don’t have as a lot of a stake in the way forward for America,” Religion, the Pennsylvania voter, mentioned after the controversy. “He’s too conservative for my liking. He’s too fundamentalist for my liking.”
It seems that this sort of outright misogyny issues individuals. And it isn’t simply ladies who really feel this fashion.
Chris, a swing voter from Minnesota, mentioned final month that Vance’s “cat girl” remark implied that there’s just one solution to be a household: “a mother and pa, married, and two youngsters.”
“To me, that’s my dream, and I’m tremendous pleased and loving it,” he went on, “nevertheless it’s not everybody’s dream, and I need to be open and respectful to that.”
Jay, the Arizonan, mentioned of Vance final evening: “From what I’ve seen and heard, he’s simply an extension of Trump. He’s not bringing something fascinating to the desk.”
On the controversy stage, Trump tried and did not bait Harris on id points. As a substitute of taking offense when he mentioned that she isn’t Black, she echoed her line that it’s simply the “usual drained playbook.” That is reflective of Harris’s broader method to gender and different id points.
In 2016, Hillary Clinton’s marketing campaign trumpeted her standing as the primary feminine main candidate. “I’m along with her” was her marketing campaign slogan. She consciously invoked gender all through the marketing campaign.
In distinction, Harris’s slogan,“For the individuals,” places voters—not the candidate’s id—on the middle of issues. And when pressed on the controversy stage, as an alternative of elevating the salience of race and gender, she mentioned, “We don’t need this sort of method that’s simply always attempting to divide us.”
Voters appear to understand this perspective. In spite of everything, they’re conscious that Harris can be the primary girl president. What they need to know is what she stands for.
Carol, a Pennsylvania swing voter, put it this fashion in July: “I’m advantageous that she’s Black. I am advantageous that she’s a lady. However is she one of the best particular person for this job?”
The nine-person focus group my workforce spoke with this morning weighed in on Carol’s query. We requested these voters how they’d describe Harris’s efficiency. The most typical response: “presidential.”
