‘A battle of the sexes’: Will 5 November be a ‘gendered election’?
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As the US election approaches, Kamala Harris and Donald Trump are digging deep into gendered voter bases, but will the strategy work?
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Read time: 4 mins
In brief…
- Kamala Harris, already hugely popular with female voters, has appeared on one of the most popular podcasts with women listeners in the world.
- Donald Trump has been backed by the likes of Andrew Tate and Elon Musk, and is using “grievance politics” to appeal to male voters.
- US author and professor Sarah Churchwell tells The News Agents the US has been ready to elect a woman since 2016 when Hillary Clinton won the popular vote.
What’s the story?
When Taylor Swift encouraged her fans to support Kamala Harris in the upcoming US election, 400,000 people registered to vote.
Billie Eilish urged her fans to do the same, appealing to the same young, female fanbase as Swift.
It’s an audience many believe Harris to have sewn up – young, Gen-Z, college-educated women, and statistics suggest more women are registered to vote in the US than men.
More recently, she appeared on the Call Her Daddy podcast, one of the most listened-to podcasts with a female audience in the world.
Trump has been endorsed by the likes of Andrew Tate, Kanye West, Conor McGregor and Jake Paul.
He has also relied on support from Elon Musk, who has urged his 200 million X/Twitter followers to vote for the former President, and joined him in sharing misinformation about voting, migrants and even the weather in his campaign to see the Republican back in the White House.
Both candidates know their audience, but do their supporters reflect their voting base, and with 5 November less than a month away, are we set for the most gendered election ever?
Why did Kamala Harris go on the 'Call Her Daddy' podcast?
How are Trump and Harris appealing to voters?
Author and professor Sarah Churchwell tells The News Agents that the election will be a “battle of the sexes”, especially among young people when votes are cast on 5 November.
“Trump is very much focused on the manosphere, the right wing – the Andrew Tates and the Joe Rogans and getting those young men on side.
“Certainly Elon Musk is the poster child for the right so bring him along and hope that he will motivate young men to get out.”
She says part of this approach is the use of “grievance politics” to appeal to male voters, “telling them that women and immigrants are the reason that they feel disaffected.”
“Then you have Kamala saying: ‘Okay, well, if you're going to talk to those young men, I'm going to talk to the young women who listen to Call Her Daddy’.”
.@alexandracooper: Can we think of any law that gives the government the power to make a decision about a man's body?
— Kamala HQ (@KamalaHQ) October 6, 2024
Vice President Harris: No pic.twitter.com/MchTFgYjnc
Will Kamala Harris’s strategy work?
Sarah says the question people keep asking about the US election is: "Will America vote for a woman?"
But that, she adds, has already been conclusively answered.
"In 2016 we did. The popular vote went to Hillary Clinton," she says.
"She didn't win those 10,000 votes in the three states she needed, but America was ready to vote for Hillary by an extra 5 million votes.
Donald Trump won the 2016 election with 304 electoral college votes to Clinton's 227 – but she won more votes overall, winning the popular vote.
"In those eight years, 20 million baby boomers have died, and 35 to 40 million young voters have come of electoral age."
Sarah adds that voter sign-up in the US was on the increase long before Taylor Swift and Billie Eilish shared their political views.
“The trends are unmistakable,” she says.
”There was a 150% surge in Latina young voters 18 to 29 after Kamala was nominated, 175% increase in young black women of the same age, suddenly rushing to register for them.”
Black men, she says, are "shifting" towards Trump, but the Black demographic in America is largely more in favour of Harris.
Taylor Swift endorses Kamala Harris after TV debate. But what does it mean?
What's The News Agents take?
The problem Emily Maitlis and Jon Sopel see in the way Harris is campaigning, and her choice of platforms, might mean she is already preaching to the converted.
Jon says she is "not putting your head into the mouth of the lion and seeing how you fare, you are doing stuff that is maybe a touch more softball, a touch easier."
"We know she's got Gen Z women, we know she's got college-educated women. We know that young people, thanks to Taylor Swift and Billie Eilish, are rallying to her side."
While Emily says the Call Her Daddy interview was one with no "hard ball" questions for the Democratic candidate.
Sarah says she doesn't believe Harris is trying to "convert Republicans", but is instead attempting to appeal to the "undecideds who thought that both Biden and Trump were impossible and so were either not going to vote at all."
She adds this will only work if she appeals to voters in the swing-states, where she needs the votes.
And it may be less of a case of a "gendered election" than it is a "turnout election".
"I really think this is going to be an election that is decided by young people – if they turn out or don't turn out."
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