Many assumed Vice President Kamala Harris, as a woman, would have secured the vote among young women in the 2024 presidential election. However, according to an exit poll from The Associated Press, that was not the case.
It turns out at least 40% of Gen Z women who are under the age of 30 chose to vote for Donald Trump in what experts have described as a “historic comeback” for the former president.
It seemed Harris believed the best way to reach young women was to make abortion the epicenter of her campaign. In the 100-plus days of her candidacy, she touted the claim that a Trump victory would mean all so-called “reproductive freedoms” and “rights” would be stripped away.
And while at least 13% of registered female voters listed abortion as their top issue, there were a large number of women who didn’t share this concern. According to The Daily Mail, 40% of this demographic said their No. 1 issue was the economy. Eleven percent named immigration as their biggest worry.
Outside of abortion, Harris also attempted to cater to young women by raking in celebrity endorsements. Taylor Swift, Beyoncé, and other notable figures popular among this group announced their support for the Democratic presidential nominee. Additionally, Harris appeared to have immense support on the prominent social media platform TikTok, where she was commonly referred to by the nickname “Mamala.” Harris also chose to sit down for an interview with Alex Cooper, the host of the “Call Her Daddy” podcast—a show that largely emphasizes sex-related material.
But despite doing what Harris felt would resonate best with young women, the results reveal that her efforts were, in many ways, unsuccessful. In fact, Breitbart noted that President Joe Biden ranked better with young female voters than Harris did during his 2020 campaign. Outlets have brought attention to the fact that Harris’ six- to eight-point lead among women in the 2024 election paled in comparison to Biden’s 25-point lead. And even in the 2016 election, Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton still secured a 19-point lead.
Several experts have taken a stab at explaining the reasons why more young women voted for Trump over Harris than expected.
“There’s an assumption made about Gen Z,” psychotherapist and author Jonathan Alpert told The Daily Mail. “[M]any so-called political experts think that just because someone is in their teens to late 20s and female that means they automatically would vote for Harris.” However, he added, “At the end of the day, Gen Z cared about many things, but safety and prosperity seemed to trump other things that the Harris campaign gave way too much power to.”
Cornell University professor Sabrina Karim believes “there were high expectations going into the election about how women would vote.”
“[W]omen are not a monolithic group,” she said. “[T]heir concerns are multifaceted.” But according to the Family Research Council’s Mary Szoch, Harris significantly missed the mark when she decided to make abortion her main connection to women.
“Kamala Harris centered her entire campaign around abortion,” she told The Washington Stand. “She told Americans that without the ‘right’ to kill their child through nine months, no one could achieve the American dream.” It was her primary topic, Szoch observed, which is why it stands out that “President Trump had a very different message.” Contrary to what Harris had to say, “He challenged Americans to recognize that we live in the greatest country on earth—and that we need to protect and defend the American dream.”
Szoch continued, “He asked people if they are living better today than they were four years ago, when he was president, and the overwhelming response was ‘No.’ Americans want more than a president who believes that the most important policies include ways to exploit children who are born and kill children who are unborn.” Rather, “Americans—including women—want a president who believes the future for all Americans, including unborn ones, is bright provided they have others willing to protect and defend them.”
According to Szoch, this is at the heart of why the exit poll revealed more women than expected turned for Trump this election cycle. However, she addressed the fact that there still are numerous Americans who did vote for Harris because of her stance on abortion. “To women who voted for Harris because of her promise to enshrine abortion until birth into law, I would say, you cannot imagine how much love you are capable of and how love transforms your life.”
“Before my first son was born, I was terrified,” she admitted. “Parenting sounded so hard, like it involved completely dying to self and living for another.” But, as Szoch went on to say, “I was right. [P]arenting is hard, and it does involve putting another’s needs before your own, but I could have never realized [at the time] how much I would love every minute of it.”
Szoch concluded, “To men and women who think abortion is the only option for your child, let God surprise you by transforming your heart and your life through the love of your baby.”
Originally published by The Washington Stand