Did Misogyny Cost Democrats The White House in 2024?

Kinda, sorta, yeah. Plus, a 17-song Musical Interlude that won't disappoint!

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Don’t Kill The Messenger

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I have a new piece for MSNBC that makes an uncomfortable argument about why Democrats lost the White House in 2024.

Over the weekend, The New York Times reported that Democratic donors are considering a $20 million “strategic plan” called “Speaking with American Men” that includes “study(ing) the syntax, language and content that gains attention and virality” in male “spaces.” The initiative is yet another example of Democrats trying to make sense of the 2024 election and, in particular, how they can win back male voters.

But polling data from the last four presidential elections suggests the root of their male voter problem — and the potential solution — might be rather straightforward: Support for Democrats among male voters dropped most dramatically when the party’s presidential candidate was a woman — and rebounded when the party nominated a man

I mentioned this in last week’s post, but the data from the recent “Catalist: What Happened in 2024” report is hard to ignore. Across the board, Democrats lost ground with men in 2024. “While women supported Kamala Harris at nearly the same levels that they supported Joe Biden in 2020, the share of men backing the Democratic ticket dropped from 48% in 2020 to 42% in 2024. These declines were evident across every major demographic group.

Of course, there could be a host of explanations for why Democrats lost the support of men in 2024, but the charts below suggest a likely culprit.