How Republican women could impact the 2024 presidential race
The tightly contested 2024 presidential election could be defined by the gender gap with Vice President Kamala Harris polling better among women, according to a CBS News poll from late October.
Recent CBS News polling shows the race between Harris and former President Donald Trump is a toss-up in seven battleground states as more than 78 million Americans have already voted ahead of Election Day on Tuesday.
Harris is counting on suburban women to help her win the presidential election. She received unexpected help from some longtime Republicans with the Women4U.S. group, an organization aimed at outreach to conservative women.
Stephanie Sharp, a co-founder of the organization, is a self-proclaimed lifelong conservative. This year though, Sharp is urging fellow Republican women to vote for Harris.
"We'll send Donald Trump packing, and then we can begin to have conversations again that are productive and have compromise on issues that are important to all of us," Sharp said.
Her message she said is for women turned off by the former president's rhetoric toward women and his role in reversing the landmark Supreme Court decision Roe v. Wade.
Trump recently said at a campaign stop in Wisconsin, "I want to protect the women of our country… Whether the women like it or not, I'm going to protect them."
In Pennsylvania, the organization is targeting voters in the Philadelphia suburbs who helped President Biden win the state four years ago.
"There are, again, hundreds of thousands of Republican women out there who are ready to vote outside their party, but they don't want to talk about it," Jennifer Horn, chief strategist for Women4U.S., said.
Across battleground states, Post-it notes are popping up in women's bathroom stalls, aimed at the so-called silent Harris supporters.
Campaign ads, including one narrated by actress Julia Roberts, remind voters that their vote is private.
Some Trump supporters are skeptical of polling that shows Harris with a big lead among women. They say it's about policy, not personality.
"We're not going home with him. We are not sitting and eating at the dining room table with him every night, but his actions speak louder than words and his actions are more aligned with my faith, with my family and the values that we hold dear," Beth Scolis, a Trump supporter, said.
A senior Trump campaign official told CBS News that even if Harris performs better with women, they think Trump's popularity among men is more impactful.
On the final day of the campaign, Trump will campaign in North Carolina and Pennsylvania, before holding his last rally in Michigan. Harris will crisscross Pennsylvania, a key battleground with 19 electoral votes. She has planned events in Allentown, Reading and Pittsburgh, before her final rally in Philadelphia.
