Democrats hope that women who are placating their Trump-supporting significant others will pull the lever for Harris when no one is watching.
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On Election Day, Democrats hope that the anonymity of the voting booth will play to their advantage. As their thinking goes, women, who are trying to maintain the peace at home by telling their male partners that they will support Donald Trump, will back Vice President Kamala Harris when they get the opportunity to cast their secret ballots.
This is not as far-fetched as it may sound.
According to a recent survey, more than one-in-ten Americans have voted differently from their partners but didn’t tell them.
And, since women are more likely to do so (12 percent to 9 percent) and are expected to support Harris in far greater numbers, Democrats hope that this voting behavior will give them an edge (there is also a theory that phone polls are skewed toward Trump because women who answer may not want to disclose that they will not vote for the former president).
One can hardly blame them.
Trump has run a campaign that has leaned heavily on misogyny. The result has been increased support among some male demographics that don’t traditionally vote for Republicans.
Conversely, the former president has seemed to go out of his way to alienate women.
Just on Monday, he suggested that it would be “interesting” to put Harris in a ring with former world champion boxer Mike Tyson while also asking the audience at one of his rallies if he could now “hit” former first lady Michelle Obama after she criticized him last week.
He also recently told women that he wants to protect them whether they like it or not.
And those are only the most recent examples.
Then, of course, there are his anti-woman policies and a long history of allegations of sexual violence.
Trump’s allies know that he has a problem with women, and that there is a real possibility that some of them will only pay lip service to supporting him before voting for Harris when it counts.
Fox News agitator Jesse Watters compared this type of behavior to a woman cheating on her husband, adding that it violates “the sanctity of marriage.”
Realizing that this dynamic provides Democrats with a real opportunity, the vice president’s campaign put out an ad in which a woman casts her ballot for Harris “in the one place in America where women still have the right to choose.”
The ad reinforces the notion that there is an unspoken bond between women who support each other.
It did not play well with the MAGA crowd.
“I think it’s so gross,” said right-wing influencer Charlie Kirk. “ I think it’s so nauseating where this wife is wearing the American hat, she’s coming in with her sweet husband who probably works his tail off to make sure that she can go you know and have a nice life and provide to the family, and then she lies to him saying, ‘Oh, yeah, I’m gonna vote for Trump,’ and then she votes for Kamala Harris as her little secret in the voting booth.”
It remains to be seen whether wannabe alpha males chastising women for making their own decisions by regurgitating antiquated gender stereotypes will persuade them to back Trump.
We are somewhat skeptical, but we trust that women can make up their own minds.
