White Alert

By Sniffles

This Mike Luckovich cartoon is terrific in and of itself, but also notable because he chose to draw his 2024 voter as a white woman. And a white woman of a certain age — like in her forties or fifties?

It got our attention because a recent Pew poll has shown Benedict Donald leading Vice President Kamala Harris among white women by five points. In the wake of the Supreme Court's Dobbs decision, it seemed inconceivable. As Black Twitter often asks, would white women rather be white than free? Will Black women really have to save America again? (In Black Twitter's opinion, the answers are overwhelmingly yes.)

This was wildly depressing, so we decided to look at some of Pew's Presidential preference detailed tables. The numbers might not be as simple as they appear on the surface.

Yes, cross-referencing race and gender puts Trump ahead with white women. But when you set aside race and look at the numbers for women overall, age becomes a significant factor. Harris leads Trump either hugely or comfortably in the overall female age brackets until you get to 50-64, where she starts losing by three. Then she swings back into a modest lead among female respondents age 65-plus. 

With Black, Hispanic, and Asian voters overall, Harris leads Trump by double digits.

The obvious answer is that Harris-Walz needs to turn out young women and women of color, big-time. They know this. The campaign is covering a lot of bases — Tim Walz and Bill Clinton are courting the male and Southern vote, while Barack Obama is talking to Black men — but they are focused like a laser on turning out the massive influx of newly energized young and female voters who rushed to register after Harris became the nominee. (After all, reproductive freedom is the most important election issue for women under 30.) Happily, trends have shown that 80 percent of recent registrants tend to show up to vote.

Back in 2008, Obama got a solid 43 percent of the overall white vote, which contributed to his decisive victory over John McCain. According to Pew, Harris is nearly there, at 41 percent. Let's work to get that number higher. White women (and men), talk to your white friends and family. Tell them what's at stake. Make sure we all check the "Big House" for Benedict Donald in November. We cats PURR.

(IMAGE: Mike Luckovich, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution)