… A funny thing has happened while the country has been focused on Donald Trump’s presidential reality show. Beginning with the march on Washington the day after the 2017 Inauguration and picking up steam with each passing day, women’s opposition to Trump has steadily grown. Trump’s approval ratings (never robust) have consistently been lower among women than among men. An unprecedented number of women ran for Congress in the 2018 midterm elections—most of them Democrats—and the Democratic wins in 2018 that gave Nancy Pelosi’s party a majority in the House of Representatives were fueled by suburban women. …
Unlike minority groups that tend to be concentrated in certain parts of the country, women are everywhere, and their turnout is consistently higher than men’s turnout. Even a small shift in the electorate’s majority demographic will have enormous consequences.
This is why the big news of the debate was Biden’s promise to put a woman on the ticket. CONT.
William A. Galston & Elaine Kamarck, Brookings Institution