Hello, happy Thursday. There are 18 days until the election, and we’re in a period of both stress and boredom (hopefully, anyway).

Unless there’s some kind of scandal brewing in the background, we’re unlikely to hear any new messages from Donald Trump or Kamala Harris at this point. But it’s also getting slower.

Maybe we’ll spend three weeks bombarded with the same messages about the economy, inflation, abortion, immigration, etc., staring at us like raw chicken we forgot to put in the fridge and thinking we really should. . Do something about it immediately.

But that doesn’t mean there’s nothing going on outside! This week’s big topic seems to be the relationship between white women and President Trump. You may remember how their support helped us in 2020.

But now we have Stormy, E. Jean, and Roe. And some white women voters are beginning to wonder if Trump is not their protector. Go figure.

But some still think he is. I know, it gives me a headache too.

CNN data reporter Harry Enten analyzed this week. The results showed that Trump is losing support among white women, a demographic that has ensured Republicans have won in past elections. Trump won this demographic by 7 points in the last election, but he is currently up only 1 point.

Enten said this is important because by his standards, white women make up 36% of likely voters, and white women are the key to victory for either candidate.

So today we’re looking at two issues: abortion and immigration, and how they force white women to make scary choices.

white women and immigrants

When you hear President Trump denigrating immigrants as rapists and lunatics, you might think he’s just a racist. That certainly seems true, but there’s also a strategy behind that vitriol.

He is stoking fear, especially the fear that the families of white female voters are at risk. President Trump’s immigration message has long targeted this point, arguing that undocumented black and brown people who cross the border are primarily dangerous people who seek to attack women, children, and communities. And maybe even a dog or cat.

According to research, Illegal immigrants are said to commit fewer crimes than citizens, but of course there are some horrific incidents committed by them. In June, Two men were charged with illegally staying in Japan. The murder of a 12-year-old girl in Houston. A year ago, an illegal immigrant was allegedly murdered. Rachel Morina mother in Maryland who went for a run. And in Georgia, Laken Rileya name often cited by Trump. She was a 22-year-old nursing student who was allegedly killed by an undocumented man while jogging on the University of Georgia campus.

Their deaths are terrible tragedies and add to the grief of many. 4,200 women died in the US More than 463,000 women are sexually assaulted in the United States each year, the vast majority by U.S. citizens. That’s an assault committed by a man, typically a U.S. citizen, about every 68 seconds. At least once by Trump himself.

Of course, President Trump is not out to protect women from American-born men. But his endless emphasis on what he calls “immigration crimes” is having the desired effect. Some women voters genuinely believe that violent immigrants pose a disproportionate threat, and Kamala Harris not only ignores it, she encourages it.

Quinnipiac University conducts new poll this week In Georgia, 51% of women think Trump will do a better job on immigration than Harris. It’s not an overwhelming majority, but he still wins.

That reality was made clear Wednesday morning at President Trump’s Georgia town hall, where one worried mother asked Trump not only what he plans to do about illegal immigrants, but also how quickly he can protect his family. asked.

She said her son attended the University of Georgia in Athens, where Riley was killed, and was on campus that day in fear. She asked President Trump, “How quickly will you eliminate threats to our society and allow our children to run the course they deserve in a sanctuary city like the one we call Athens, Georgia?” Alone in the park during the day?”

The answer, of course, comes as soon as we, as a culture, stop condoning rape and violence against women by men of all colors and nationalities.

But that wasn’t Trump’s answer. President Trump will either outlaw sanctuary cities through executive order or Foreign Enemies Act of 1798It allows the president to deport immigrants from enemy countries.

But importantly, the question itself shows where some white women voters are coming from. They want protection from the threats President Trump has instilled in them with fear, and they genuinely fear immigrants will harm women.

white women and abortion

But there’s also the issue of abortion, an issue that has excited women voters since 2022, when the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.

The women at City Hall were all Republicans, hand-picked by Fox News, and asked questions about the issue where “everyone” wants reproductive rights to lose federal protections and be placed in the hands of state legislatures. Trump seemed satisfied with his answer. Most women instituted a six-week ban before realizing they were pregnant.

But I don’t know if women outside of town hall feel quite the same way. Quinnipiac University poll It found that 55% of Georgia’s female voters think Harris will do a better job on abortion.

Before President Trump’s event amber thurman family He held a press conference with Mr. Harris. Ms. Thurman is a 22-year-old mother, and in 2022 Forced to travel out of state for medical abortion. When she returned to Georgia, she experienced complications. But the hospital refused to treat her for more than 20 hours, and she eventually died of sepsis. Thurman’s death was completely avoidable with routine medical treatment.

The town hall host, Fox host Harris Faulkner, told Trump about Thurman’s press conference, and Trump joked about it.

“Oh, that’s good,” Trump said, adding, “I promise you’ll get a better rating.”

A better rating than a grieving family. That will get the votes. Abortion remains one of Trump’s most vulnerable points. And if some women fear immigration, many women also fear the idea that they or their loved ones may die seeking reproductive health care.

Because, in case it wasn’t obvious, this “back to the states” line is disingenuous and dangerous.

Here, I would like to introduce some news that is a bit important but still in the weeds. jessica valenti substack: Republican-led states Kansas, Missouri and Idaho this week amended their complaints in pending lawsuits involving the abortion drug mifepristone.

They’re going after states like California that allow drugs to be mailed to states that ban abortion (this invokes the Comstock Act, which I wrote about earlier), and they also They are trying to completely outlaw the drug. The case is being heard by a Texas judge. Being an anti-abortion activist.

mary ziegler The University of California, Davis law professor and reproductive rights expert posted on X about the filing: “This is a big problem, especially considering who Comstock’s enforcement depends on in the White House.”

What she means by this is that President Trump doesn’t need to ban abortion. He could simply enforce the existing Comstock Act, which would make it nearly impossible to ship drugs to clinics and patients, effectively banning all medication abortions by the back door. That’s why battles over reproductive rights rarely end at state lines, and most women voters, including Republican women, know that.

At the town hall, Trump sought to address the reality of this vote-sucking reality, pledging to support exceptions to the rape, incest and abortion bans to save women’s lives.

He also tried to allay concerns that the state’s ban could affect access to IVF (spoiler alert – IVF destroys embryos, so a ban certainly would) . He calls himself the “father of IVF” and, in one particularly bizarre moment, calls Alabama Sen. Katie Britt, who explained to him what IVF is, “just a wonderful, fascinating person.” is. You may remember that Britt tried to introduce legislation that would allow women to collect child support for their “unborn” children.

So for white women, especially moderate women who for some reason are still undecided (or maybe just keep their ballots private), between the fear of illegal immigration and the fear of losing their reproductive rights. has a gravitational force.

What these white women fear most may decide the election.

What else to read:

Must read: President Trump escalates threats against political opponents he considers ‘enemies’
LA Times Special Feature I: Column: The “Latino vote” is a myth. My road trip through the Southwest tells a more complex story
LA Times Special Feature II: Elon Musk expected Trump to “sail off into the sunset.” He is now working hard to get himself elected.

stay golden,
Anita Chhabria

PS Florida is voting on a constitutional amendment enshrining the right to abortion after the state earlier passed a ban. The battle was so controversial that one government official tried to force television stations to remove ads in favor of the amendment. The FCC has intervened, but the lawsuit is ongoing and Gov. Ron DeSantis is using state funds to fight to get votes against it.

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