From Former President Donald Trump Male Republican candidates are struggling to speak to female voters, drawing criticism for using vulgar and patronizing language to win women’s support and talk about issues that are important to them, according to Ohio Senate candidate Bernie Moreno.
On Monday night, Trump called himself a “protector” of women, saying in the battleground state of Pennsylvania that he would save them from fear and loneliness, and that they would no longer have to think about abortion.
“You will no longer be alone or scared. You will no longer be in danger. … You will no longer have to worry about all of the problems our country is facing today,” Trump said. “You will be safe and I will be your protector.”
At a town hall event Friday, Moreno bemoaned the fact that abortion has become the defining issue for many suburban women, calling the notion “a little crazy, but especially for women who are over 50. I’m thinking to myself, ‘I don’t think this is really an issue for you.’”
Former Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley responded angrily to Moreno in a social media post. “Are you trying to lose the election?” she asked, adding, “Asking for a friend. #Tonedeaf #DonLemonVibes.” The latter post was a reference to former CNN anchor Don Lemon’s suggestion during the 2023 campaign that Haley, 51, was “past her prime.”
These comments underscore the Republican Party’s challenges in appealing to women, particularly when it comes to the issue of abortion. That problem has only gotten worse since then Vice President Kamala Harris replaced President Joe Biden at the top of the Democratic ticket.
Women have emerged as a major weakness for Trump’s campaign, and he is viewed less favorably by women than men. An AP-NORC survey in September found that more than half of registered voters who are women have a somewhat or very favorable view of Harris, while only a third have a favorable view of Trump.
The gender divide — the difference between the share of men and women who say they support each candidate — has been in double digits for Trump and Harris in several recent surveys. This divide has been partly attributed to Trump’s role in appointing Supreme Court justices who struck down the constitutional right to abortion — a decision he continues to celebrate at his events.
“Women will be healthy, happy, confident and independent. You won’t think about abortion anymore,” Trump said Monday, insisting that the issue is “no longer relevant” while women living in Republican-led states grapple with a wave of new restrictions that have led emergency rooms to refuse to treat pregnant women and have been linked by ProPublica to at least two preventable deaths.
Debbie Walsh, director of the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University’s Eagleton Institute of Politics, argued that such language, rather than helping to increase Trump’s appeal among women, could alienate them.
“This notion that women need to be protected, that women are somehow weak or vulnerable — that kind of patronizing, patronizing tone … I think for a lot of women it’s going to reinforce the feeling that he doesn’t understand their lives, that he doesn’t understand where they stand on a lot of issues,” she said.
She said many women believe overturning Roe v. Wade “puts their lives at risk.”
Trump’s vow to protect women is complicated by his long history of personal attacks against women, as well as a jury’s finding last year that he sexually assaulted a magazine columnist in a department store dressing room decades ago. Trump has denied those allegations as well as numerous others that have surfaced in recent years.
“Language like this is proof that Donald Trump is out of touch with American women,” said Jennifer Lawless, chair of the politics department at the University of Virginia. “Not only is the sentiment patriarchal, but the fact that he used these words in a rebuke of women who care about reproductive rights is shocking.”
Trump’s campaign dismissed the criticism as coming from partisan voices and said Trump’s comments reflected the top issues of his voters.
Trump campaign spokeswoman Carolyn Levitt said, “President Trump is responding directly to the concerns that he and our campaign hear from women across the country every day, their fears, the very real fear that women have that they could be attacked or potentially raped by criminals or illegal immigrants who have been allowed to be in this country.”
Harris’ campaign said Trump’s latest comments showed he was trying to tell women “what they should think and what we should care about.”
“Women know better — and we will not be silenced, dismissed, ignored or treated like idiots,” spokeswoman Sarafina Chitika said in a statement.
Meanwhile, Moreno spokesperson Reagan McCarthy said the Senate candidate’s remarks were made in jest.
“Bernie believes that women voters care just as much about the economy, rising prices, crime, and our open southern border as male voters do, and it’s disgusting that Democrats and their friends in the left-wing media continually treat all women as if they are automatically single-issue voters on the issue of abortion who have no other concerns on which to vote,” she said in a written statement.
Trump’s campaign has been focusing much of its energy on attracting and swaying men – particularly young men who consistently do not vote in elections. The effort has included popular podcasts and appearances at major sporting events such as Ultimate Fighting Championship fights, which have sometimes given the campaign a fraternity-like feel.
But campaign officials have long stressed that they are also working to attract women. They believe Trump’s focus on the border and crime — with its dark threats of dangerous immigrants taking over neighborhoods and families being put at risk by uncontrollable crime — connects particularly well with women, as does his focus on the economy and his pledge to lower prices.
At Monday night’s rally, Trump said the situation for women was worse now than it was when he was president. He vowed to “fix it all quickly.”
He said, “I will protect women at a level never seen before. They will finally be healthy, hopeful, safe and protected. Their lives will be happy, beautiful and great again. And it is my honor to do so.”
Even some Trump supporters raised their eyebrows.
“I call them old-fashioned men,” said Louella Ondo, 69, a stay-at-home mom in Pennsylvania. They’re the kind of men who believe “women are inferior to them and that they should be the boss.” She said she encountered many such male egos in her 40 years working in health care with surgeons.
Ondo, a longtime supporter of Trump since his days on “The Apprentice,” said his attitude bothered her during his first election. But now, she said, it’s clear the country needs “someone who’s willing to do the work, not someone who’s going to sweet-talk you.”
“Would I want him to be my best friend? I’m not sure I would, you know? Because my ideas and his presentation are different. But he can work and change us. And that’s what we need.”
Others liked what he said.
Mary Ann Williams, a 63-year-old retired school teacher who lives in Newtown, said she feels less safe now than she did under Trump and wants him to change that.
“I think what he’s really trying to say is that by following his policies – like closing the border, stopping criminals, drug dealers – women, children, everybody is safe, we’re all safe,” he said.