For an alternate viewpoint, see “Point: Working-Class Men Have Abandoned the Democratic Party; Here’s What We Should Do About It.”
Republicans, and particularly President-elect Donald Trump, did better with women than the media, the polls, or recent history would have led anyone to expect. Here are five ways Republicans can make this the beginning of a permanent realignment.
Follow Through on Campaign Promises. Millions of women — including young, first-time female voters — supported Republicans in 2024 because they support the Make American Great Agenda. They expect the Republican-led government to bring down prices, end the border catastrophe, fight crime, and restore common sense, including ending business-as-usual waste and DEI (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion) bean counting.
It isn’t that complicated: American women felt much worse off after four years of Biden-Harris. Trump and JD Vance need to ensure women think the country is headed in the right direction.
Prioritize Transparency. Women don’t like to be lied to. In 2024, voters saw that Democrats had been unabashedly lying about President Biden’s health and mental fitness. Biden’s presidential debate implosion left Americans wondering what else is being covered up. Voters now suspect that the answer is a lot.
Trump and Republicans must be champions of free speech and transparency. Americans deserve the whole truth about COVID, health agency coverups and corruption, the FBI, and everything else. Republicans should ensure that happens and invite Democrats to participate in the process.
Speak Directly to the People: The 2024 campaign exposed that the mainstream, legacy media is more interested in creating helpful narratives for Biden and establishment Washington than in presenting the truth. American women saw paid influencers and “interviewers” (some also paid) splice together hype reels on behalf of Vice President Kamala Harris. Many recognized it for what it was — high-end, misleading marketing, just like we get from fashion and skin care companies. Trump found forums to speak directly to Americans rather than work through corrupt handlers. Americans want more of this. Women are forgiving about awkward, even off-putting, off-the-cuff phrasings and bungled answers. They aren’t forgiving about being deliberately misled.
Make Financial Security Attainable Again: Women tend to be natural worriers, and the last four years of the economy have given us plenty to worry about. Older women worry that if they lose the job they have, they’ll never find one that offers the same salary again. They worry about adult children ever being able to afford a house. Women worry about what would happen if they faced an emergency. Women want an economy they can depend on for stable prices and a wide variety of work opportunities, from side gigs to starting a small business to leaning into careers that promise upward mobility. Bringing down costs and enabling job creation should be the administration’s economic North Star.
Restore Common Sense in Our Culture: Democrats publicly debating how much the so-called transgender issue drove the election’s outcome are missing the more significant point. It was never about men in women’s sports but the Democrats’ abandonment of normalcy and common sense. Americans saw the man who stopped a drug-addled, mentally ill homeless person from threatening people on a New York subway thrown in jail. At the same time, gang members who assaulted police officers were quickly released. Democrats insisted that parents objecting to 10-year-old girls being told they may really be boys or cartoon pornography in their school libraries were bigots and book burners. Women were told it was unkind to notice rising crime and resources taken from their kids’ classrooms for English-language learners.
Women’s instinct to be empathetic and inclusive was pushed too far. We want to know that our daughters’ sleep-away camp is really girls only. That requires we all agree upon what the word “girl” actually means. Women are tired of the idiotic debate about whether males have an athletic advantage. Of course, they do. Everyone sane knows this, and pretending otherwise means you care more about a political agenda than the safety of female prisoners, women in domestic violence shelters, and vulnerable girls in locker rooms and on sports fields.
Democrats used to be seen as women’s champions and now are unwilling to even define the word woman. Women have had enough and want to return to a world where obvious truths are respected rather than undermined. This is precisely what Republicans can offer. If Republicans spend the next four years championing economic opportunity, transparency and common sense, they can win women over permanently.
