One thing that is sure about this election is that the Kamala Harris-Tim Walz ticket has a big advantage when it comes to women. Creepy Donald Trump, weird JD Vance, and their campaign surrogates have attacked women’s reproductive rights and freedoms and in addition made all manner of sexist and misogynistic remarks. We now see women from prominent Republican families announcing that they plan to support Harris.

Barbara Bush, the daughter of former Republican President George W. Bush, campaigned for Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris in Pennsylvania over the weekend, marking her official endorsement of the vice president.

“It was inspiring to join friends and meet voters with the Harris-Walz campaign in Pennsylvania this weekend,” Bush said in a statement to People Magazine. “I’m hopeful they’ll move our country forward and protect women’s rights.”
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While her father has not weighed in on the race, Bush joins a growing list of daughters of former Republican politicians announcing their support for Harris, including former Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney, Susan Ford Bales, daughter of former Republican President Gerald Ford, and Caroline Giuliani.

What surprises me is that the creepy Trump campaign does not seem to be even trying to win back women. The fascistic rally at Madison Square Garden on Sunday, like heir party convention, was reeking of testosterone. There was not a single woman among the headline speakers. You would think that at least some of the well-known female Republican governors, senators, and congresswomen would be given prominent roles. Instead we had a series of male D-listers such as an insult comedian, Hulk Hogan, some guy I did not recognize who was yelling and waving a cross, Rudy Giuliani, and the like. The only women among the list of scheduled speakers were Rep. Elise Stefanik, Tulsi Gabbard, and Lara Trump, decidedly minor figures in the national political landscape. Not even puppy killer Kristi Noem was there, despite being well known and an ardent supporter of creepy Trump.

But the most puzzling thing is the complete sidelining of Nikki Haley. She was the last person standing among those who challenged creepy Trump for the GOP nomination and although she never had a realistic chance of winning, she stuck in there and acquired quite a dedicated following along the way, many of whom were women. After she finally conceded, she announced that she would be supporting creepy Trump, even though he had attacked her in his usual vicious and sexist way that angered many of her supporters. You would think that he would court her supporters by having her be a campaign surrogate. But it looks like he is still peeved that she challenged him and she has been completely ignored, not invited to speak at rallies or otherwise campaign, and is clearly irritated at the way the campaign is being run.

Former presidential candidate and onetime U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley criticized Trump world on Tuesday for being “overly masculine with this bromance thing” after former President Donald Trump’s rally at Madison Square Garden on Sunday.
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“This is not a time to have anyone criticize Puerto Rico or Latinos,” Haley said, instead calling for discipline around the campaign. “This is not a time for them to get overly masculine with this bromance thing that they have.”

She criticized the decision to allow a comic to perform at the event in the first place, saying there was “no reason” to do so.
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Haley noted other language used throughout the rally, as well as in Republican ads and messaging, that she called destructive to drawing women into the fold on Election Day. Polls show a major gender gap playing out with this election, with women turning to Vice President Kamala Harris in greater numbers and Trump winning among men.

“This bromance and masculinity stuff, it borders on edgy to the point that it’s going to make women uncomfortable,” Haley said.

“You have got affiliated PACs doing commercials about calling Kamala the ‘c’ word or speakers at Madison Square Garden, you know, referring to her and her ‘pimps,’” Haley added. “That is not the way to win women. That is not the way to win people who are concerned about Trump’s style.”

Haley was referring to a video published on X by Elon Musk’s super PAC calling Harris the “c-word” before then saying she was “communist.” The spot was deleted from America PAC’s account Monday.
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Haley also criticized Trump and his running mate, Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, last month, saying they “need to change the way they speak about women.”

“You don’t need to call Kamala ‘dumb,'” Haley said at the time. “She didn’t get this far, you know, just by accident. … She’s a prosecutor. You don’t need to go and talk about intelligence or looks or anything else. Just focus on the policies.”

There is no doubt that there are hardcore supporters of creepy Trump who are women and will support him come hell or high water. I recall one woman at a rally, when asked whether she was bothered by his comments that he would ‘grab women by the pussy, said that she wouldn’t mind if he did that to her. It is bizarre.

Perhaps he thinks that he can overcome the disadvantage among women by driving up his support among sexist and misogynistic men and so he is going all in on appealing to them. It is a weird strategy but he and his running mate are weird people.

Rebecca Solnit writes that, sadly, there are women who are afraid to tell their male partners that they are voting for Harris and have to do so surreptitiously, as this ad by the Lincoln Project reflects.

Only you need to know who you vote for. Just ask Melania. pic.twitter.com/gdMyXZXYjj

— The Lincoln Project (@ProjectLincoln) October 28, 2024