INDIANA, Pa. (AP) — From former President Donald Trump to Ohio Senate candidate Bernie Moreno, male Republican candidates have struggled to appeal to female voters, using language criticized as insensitive and condescending as they try to win women’s support and speak on issues crucial to them.
On Monday evening, Trump portrayed himself as a “protector” of women in the contested state of Pennsylvania, declaring that he would protect them from fear and loneliness and that they would no longer have to think about abortion.
“You will no longer be abandoned, alone or afraid. You will no longer be in danger. … You will no longer be afraid of all the problems that our country has today,” Trump said. “You will be protected, and I will be your protector.”
At a town hall meeting on Friday, Moreno lamented the fact that abortion has become a crucial issue for many suburban women. He called the idea “a little crazy, by the way, but especially for women over 50. I think 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. “Do you want to lose the election?” she asked. “I’m asking for a friend. #Tonedeaf #DonLemonVibes.” The latter was a reference to former CNN anchor Don Lemon’s remark during the 2023 campaign that Haley, at 51, was “past her prime.”
The comments underscore Republicans’ difficulty in appealing to women, particularly when it comes to the issue of abortion, a problem that has worsened since Vice President Kamala Harris replaced President Joe Biden at the top of the Democratic ticket.
Women have proven to be a key weakness of Trump’s campaign, and he is viewed less favorably by women than by men. A September AP-NORC poll found that more than half of registered female voters have a somewhat or very favorable opinion of Harris, while only about a third have a favorable opinion of Trump.
The gender gap – the difference between the proportion of men and women who say they support each candidate – has been in double digits for Trump and Harris in several recent polls. This gap is attributed in part to Trump’s role in appointing the Supreme Court justices who struck down the constitutional right to abortion – a ruling he continues to celebrate at his events.
“Women will be healthy, happy, confident and free. They will not think about abortion anymore,” Trump said Monday, insisting the issue is “out of date” even as women in Republican-led states struggle with a wave of fresh restrictions, including emergency rooms refusing to treat pregnant women. ProPublica attributes this to at least two preventable deaths.
Rather than helping Trump enhance his appeal to women, such language is likely to repel them, argues Debbie Walsh, director of the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University’s Eagleton Institute of Politics.
“This idea that women need to be protected, that women are somehow weak or vulnerable – this protectionist, condescending tone … I think for a lot of women it just reinforces the feeling that he doesn’t understand their lives, that he doesn’t know where they stand on a whole range of issues,” she said.
Many women, she noted, believe that the overturning of Roe v. Wade put “their lives in danger.”
Trump’s promise to protect women is further complicated by his long history of personal attacks on women, including a jury’s verdict last year that he sexually assaulted a magazine columnist in a department store dressing room decades earlier. Trump has denied those allegations and numerous others that have surfaced over the years.
“This type of language is just further proof that Donald Trump is out of touch with American women,” said Jennifer Lawless, chair of the University of Virginia’s politics department. “Not only is the sentiment paternalistic, but the fact that he uttered these words while simultaneously berating women for caring about reproductive rights is appalling.”
Trump’s campaign dismissed the criticism as partisan voices and said Trump’s comments reflected the most crucial concerns of his voters.
“President Trump is responding directly to the concerns he and our campaign hear every day from women across the country: their fear, the very real fear women have of being attacked or possibly raped by criminals or illegal immigrants who have been allowed into this country,” said Trump campaign spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt.
Harris’ campaign said Trump’s recent comments showed he wanted to tell women “what to think and what is important to us.”
“Women know better – and we will not be silenced, dismissed, ignored or treated like fools,” spokeswoman Sarafina Chitika said in a statement.
Moreno’s spokesman Reagan McCarthy, meanwhile, said the Senate candidate’s comment was a joke.
“Bernie believes that female voters are just as concerned about the economy, rising prices, crime and our open southern border as male voters, and it is disgusting that Democrats and their friends in the left-wing media constantly treat all women as if they are automatically single-issue voters on the abortion issue with no other issues on which to vote,” she said in a written statement.
Trump’s campaign has devoted much of its energy to reaching out to and mobilizing men, particularly younger men who don’t regularly vote. That effort has included appearances on popular podcasts and at major sporting events like Ultimate Fighting Championship bouts, which have sometimes given the campaign a fraternal feel.
But campaign officials have long stressed that they want to appeal to women, too. They believe Trump’s focus on the border and crime – with the dire threat of neighborhoods being overrun by threatening migrants and out-of-control crime endangering families – will resonate particularly well with women, as will his focus on the economy and his promise to lower prices.
At his rally on Monday evening, Trump said that women are worse off today than they were during his time in office. He vowed to “fix all this quickly.”
“I will protect women on a level never seen before. They will finally be healthy, hopeful, safe and secure. Their lives will be happy, beautiful and amazing again. And it is an honor for me to do this,” he said.
Even some of Trump’s supporters seemed to raise their eyebrows.
“He’s what I call an old-style man,” says Louella Ondo, 69, who lives in nearby Home, Pennsylvania. She defines him as the type who believes “that women are inferior to him and that he has to be the boss.” She says she has encountered many such male egos while working in the health care field for 40 years alongside surgeons.
Ondo, who has supported Trump since his days on “The Apprentice,” said that attitude bothered her when he first came on the scene. But now, she said, it’s clear that the country “needs someone who is willing to do the job, not someone who’s going to butter you up.”
“Would I want him to be my best friend? I’m not sure that would be the case, you know? Because my mindset and his demeanor are different. But he can do the job and get us on the right path. And that’s what we need.”
Others liked what they heard.
Mary Ann Williams, 63, a retired teacher from Newtown, said she feels less safe and sound now than when Trump was in office and expects him to turn things around.
“I think what he’s basically saying is that we’ll all be safer if we follow his policies – like closing the borders and stopping immigrants who are criminals and drug dealers,” she said.
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Associated Press writer Amelia Thomson DeVeaux in Washington contributed to this report.
