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Column: Can Kamala Harris and an army of 'childless cat ladies' overcome Republicans' sexism?

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Column: Can Kamala Harris and an army of 'childless cat ladies' overcome Republicans' sexism?

Do MAGA Republicans hear themselves?

Earlier this month, as he speculated on Newsmax about how Vice President Kamala Harris might perform as the Democratic presidential nominee, the reliably noxious Donald Trump supporter Sebastian Gorka dismissed her in the most offensive way, using the abbreviation for “diversity, equity and inclusion” programs.

“She’s a DEI hire, right? She’s a woman. She’s colored,” he said, adding sarcastically, “Therefore, she’s got to be good.”

The 20-year-old chairwoman of Hawaii Young Republicans piled on, suggesting on Instagram that Harris would be more effective in the White House kitchen than in the Oval Office. “I can see how some would view my words as misogynistic or sexist, but it’s simply a joke,” explained Rocklin Youngstrom — unaware, perhaps, that her post could be all three without being funny.

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“Low IQ Kamala” is how the “Official War Room account of the 2024 Trump campaign” described Harris on the social media platform X.

And Trump rallies have long featured merch with the slogan “Joe and the Ho gotta go.”

I assume this outpouring of super-classy behavior is what led Republican leaders to warn GOP members of Congress to refrain from “overtly racist and sexist attacks” on Harris.

“This election will be about policies and not personalities,” Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters after a closed-door meeting with House Republicans on Tuesday. “This is not personal with regard to Kamala Harris, and her ethnicity or her gender have nothing to do with this whatsoever.”

Now, I’m just spitballing here, but if you have to instruct your political allies to avoid sexist and racist rhetoric against the first woman of color to head a major presidential ticket, doesn’t your party have a sexism and racism problem?

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And if you are urging them to forswear only overt attacks, does that mean you are fine with more nuanced ones? Is it overtly sexist or racist when Trump calls Harris a “nasty woman,” a “radical-left lunatic” and “dumb as a rock”? Or when he constantly butchers her first name (properly pronounced “comma-la”) and claims she “shouldn’t even be allowed to run”?

Trump’s running mate, Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance, must not have gotten Johnson’s memo. Last week, he evoked the despicable Reagan-era caricature of the Black welfare queen to describe Harris, a former San Francisco district attorney, California attorney general and United States senator.

“What the hell have you done other than collect a government check for the past 20 years?” he demanded of the vice president during his first solo campaign rally.

Former Trump advisor Kellyanne Conway declared on Fox News that Harris “does not speak well. She does not work hard.”

It’s been kind of fun watching Vance’s missteps in his early outings as Trump’s vice presidential nominee, which has led to speculation that Trump must be having a serious case of buyer’s remorse.

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The internet caught fire after Hillary Clinton resurfaced a 2021 clip of Vance telling Tucker Carlson that Democrats such as Harris and New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez are “a bunch of childless cat ladies who are miserable at their own lives and the choices that they’ve made and so they want to make the rest of the country miserable too.” By contrast, he said, those meeting his narrow definition of parents “who go home at night and see the face of a smiling kid, whatever their profession, I think they’re happier, I think they’re healthier, and they’re going to be better prepared to actually lead this country.”

It takes a special kind of cluelessness to simultaneously slam women who don’t have kids and cat lovers. Vance’s bizarre fetishization of parenthood — he has suggested parents should have more votes than people who don’t have kids — is already backfiring. Once his cat lady comments were out of the bag, a 2023 Time magazine “Person of the Year” cover featuring the childless Taylor Swift with her cat Benjamin Button around her neck went viral. One of Harris’ two stepchildren and their mother also rebuked Vance’s inaccurate attack on the vice president.

Even the childless Jennifer Aniston, who only occasionally dips into politics, weighed in Wednesday on Instagram. “I truly can’t believe this is coming from a potential VP of the United States,” she wrote. And, alluding to Vance’s vote against ensuring access to in vitro fertilization, she added, “Mr. Vance, I pray that your daughter is fortunate enough to bear children of her own one day. I hope she will not need to turn to IVF as a second option. Because you are trying to take that away from her, too.”

Democratic campaign consultant Tim Hogan described the Trump-Vance campaign on CNN recently as “a testosterone ticket that I think is going to explode the gender gap in this election.”

It’s too early for polls to determine whether that is true. Harris’ flawless debut as the probable Democratic nominee is bound to give way to a misstep here or there. That’s just how campaigns work.

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And the torrent of racism and sexism that has already flowed from Trump and his supporters will surely continue to inundate us between now and election day. We can be grateful at least that the race has just 100 days to go.

@robinkabcarian

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Trump stirs GOP primary drama with visit to Massie’s Kentucky home turf

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Trump stirs GOP primary drama with visit to Massie’s Kentucky home turf

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President Donald Trump is taking his feud with Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., to the libertarian lawmaker’s home turf on Wednesday.

Trump is expected to hold an event in Hebron, Kentucky, on Wednesday, the Republican Party of Kentucky announced on social media Monday. It’s located in the northern part of the state’s 4th Congressional District, which Massie represents.

Massie’s primary rival, Ed Gallrein, will attend the Hebron event, his campaign confirmed to Fox News Digital on Tuesday, while deferring all other questions on the matter to the White House.

Massie himself will miss the event due to a previously scheduled official engagement, his spokesperson told Fox News Digital.

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KHANNA AND MASSIE THREATEN TO FORCE A VOTE ON IRAN AS PROSPECT OF US ATTACK LOOMS

President Donald Trump will be visiting Rep. Thomas Massie’s congressional district on Wednesday. (Win McNamee/Getty Images; Nathan Posner/Anadolu via Getty Images)

When asked about the visit, White House spokeswoman Liz Huston told Fox News Digital, “President Trump will visit the great states of Ohio and Kentucky on Wednesday to tout his economic victories and detail his Administration’s aggressive, ongoing efforts to lower prices and make America more affordable.”

The president has thrown his considerable influence behind Gallrein to unseat Massie after the GOP lawmaker publicly defied Trump on multiple occasions.

MASSIE, KHANNA TO VISIT DOJ TO REVIEW UNREDACTED EPSTEIN FILES

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Massie most recently was one of two House Republicans to vote to stop Trump’s joint operation in Iran with Israel, though the legislation was successfully blocked by the majority of GOP lawmakers and a handful of Democrats.

Ed Gallrein, left, seen with President Donald Trump in the Oval Office at the White House. (Ed Gallrein congressional campaign)

He was also one of two Republicans to vote against Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” last year.

Trump in turn has hurled a slew of personal attacks against Massie, including calling him “weak and pathetic” in a statement endorsing Gallrein in October.

“He only votes against the Republican Party, making life very easy for the Radical Left. Unlike ‘lightweight’ Massie, a totally ineffective LOSER who has failed us so badly, CAPTAIN ED GALLREIN IS A WINNER WHO WILL NOT LET YOU DOWN,” Trump posted on Truth Social at the time, one of numerous criticisms targeting the Kentucky Republican through the years.

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He called Massie the “worst Republican congressman” in July amid Massie’s bipartisan push to force the Department of Justice (DOJ) to release its files on Jeffrey Epstein.

Then-Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Republican from Georgia, Rep. Thomas Massie, a Republican from Kentucky, and Rep. Ro Khanna, a Democrat from California, during a news conference outside the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday, Nov. 18, 2025. (Graeme Sloan/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

But Massie has so far appeared to defy political gravity despite making political enemies out of both Trump and House GOP leaders.

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He handily defeated multiple primary challengers in 2024 and 2022, despite public feuds with Trump, and has served his district since 2012.

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Gallrein is a retired Navy SEAL and farmer who launched his campaign days after Trump made his endorsement. Their primary election day is May 19.

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California Democrats launch pricey polling effort to winnow crowded gubernatorial field

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California Democrats launch pricey polling effort to winnow crowded gubernatorial field

As anxiety mounts among California Democrats about the potential of a Republican being elected governor, the state party will spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on polling to assess the viability of the sprawling field of candidates hoping to replace termed-out Gov. Gavin Newsom, according to plans released Tuesday.

The move comes after nearly every Democratic candidate refused party leaders’ call last week to withdraw from the race to avoid splitting the vote in the June primary — an outcome that could lead to a Republican being elected to statewide office for the first time in two decades.

“Candidates have filed, and now they’ve got the opportunity to showcase their viability, their path to win. I want to simply ensure that everybody has information to fully understand the current state of the race,” said Rusty Hicks, the leader of the California Democratic Party.

As campaign season ramps up, the series of six polls will allow “candidates, supporters, the media, voters, anyone and everyone to have a clear understanding of what is or is not happening in this particular race,” he said.

The filing deadline to appear on the June 2 ballot was Friday. Three days earlier, Hicks released an open letter urging candidates who did not have a path to victory to withdraw from the race. Of the nine prominent Democrats who had announced runs for governor, only one heeded his call: former state Assembly Majority Leader Ian Calderon.

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That means the eight other candidates’ names will appear on the ballot, regardless of whether they decide to later drop out. And that creates the possibility of a Republican winning the race because of how California elections are decided.

The state has a voter-approved top-two primary system, under which the two candidates who receive the most votes in the June primary advance to the November general election, regardless of party.

Two prominent Republicans will appear on the ballot: former conservative commentator Steve Hilton and Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco. Even though Democratic voters outnumber Republicans nearly 2 to 1, and the state’s electorate last elevated Republicans to statewide office in 2006, it is mathematically possible for Democrats to splinter the vote, allowing the two GOP candidates to advance.

Under such a scenario, not only would Republicans be guaranteed the leadership of the nation’s most-populous state, but Democratic voter turnout also would probably be depressed in November, potentially affecting down-ballot races such as those that could determine control of Congress.

Hicks’ call last week prompted concerns among candidates of color, including former U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra and state Supt. of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond, that the effort was aimed at every nonwhite candidate in the race.

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The state party chairman responded that his letter was not aimed at any specific candidate.

“It’s not something I lose sleep over,” Hicks said when asked about the racial claims. But he added that the voter surveys will be conducted by Los Angeles-based Evitarus, the state’s only Black- and Latino-led full-service polling firm, and will oversample historically underrepresented communities: Latino, Black and Asian American voters.

Hicks said the polling will cost “multiple six figures” but did not specify the exact amount.

The first poll will be released on March 24, and then five additional surveys will come out every seven to 10 days until voters start receiving mail ballots in early May.

“We’re putting this forward to ensure everyone is armed with the information they need to clearly have an eyes-wide-open assessment of where the state of the race currently is between now and when ballots land in the mailboxes of voters,” Hicks said.

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Trump reveals top issues GOP should focus on to secure midterms victory: ‘I’ve never been more confident’

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Trump reveals top issues GOP should focus on to secure midterms victory: ‘I’ve never been more confident’

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President Donald Trump outlined five key items he believes will tip the upcoming midterm elections in the GOP’s favor — if Republicans can muscle them through Congress.

“No transgender mutilation surgery for our children,” Trump told an audience at the Republican Members’ Issues Conference. “Voter ID, citizenship [verification], mail-in ballots, we don’t want men playing in women’s sports.”

It’s the best of Trump. Those are the best of Trump. This is the number one priority, it should be, for the House,” Trump said.

Trump’s exhortations to Republican lawmakers come as the GOP wages an uphill campaign to hang on to a controlling majority in the House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate. He framed his legislative priorities as a way for Republicans to capitalize on popular demands within the GOP base that would increase their chances of preserving a Republican governing trifecta.

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President Donald Trump gestures as he boards Air Force One before departing Palm Beach International Airport in West Palm Beach, Florida, on March 1, 2026. (Mandel Ngan / AFP via Getty Images)

HOUSE REPUBLICANS PUSH ELECTION OVERHAUL WITH VOTER ID, MAIL-IN BALLOT CHANGES AHEAD OF MIDTERMS

Currently, Republicans hold just four more seats than Democrats in the House of Representatives.

The GOP holds six more than Democrats in the Senate.

To keep the numbers in their favor, Republicans will need to beat historical trends. In the vast majority of past cases, parties that capture the White House in presidential elections face blowback in the midterms. Notably, the last time a majority party gained seats in both chambers of Congress in the midterms came under the Bush administration in 2002, following devastating attacks on the World Trade Center.

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House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-Louisiana, left, and President Donald Trump shake hands during an Invest America roundtable in the State Dining Room of the White House in Washington, District of Columbia, on June 9, 2025. (Yuri Gripas/Abaca/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

REPUBLICANS, TRUMP RUN INTO SENATE ROADBLOCK ON VOTER ID BILL

Trump said he believes Republicans have a shot at bucking the trend come November if they focus on his list.

“It’ll guarantee the midterms,” Trump said of his legislative priorities.

Republicans have already taken strikes towards two of them through the SAVE America Act, a piece of legislation that would require proof of citizenship to register to vote and cast a ballot. That bill cleared the House last month for a second time in the 119th Congress.

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Its future is uncertain in the Senate, where Republicans would need the assistance of seven Democrats to overcome the 60-vote threshold to defeat a filibuster. Democrats, for their part, believe the legislation would disenfranchise voters who cannot readily provide documented proof of citizenship through a passport, REAL ID, or birth certificate. 

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D. has promised a vote on the package despite its long odds. 

Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, talks with a guest during a “Only Citizens Vote Bus Tour” rally in Upper Senate Park to urge Congress to pass the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act on Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2025. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)

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Several members have introduced bills on transgender issues, although none of them have cleared either chamber.

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I’ve never been more confident that if we keep these promises and deliver on this popular agenda, the American people will stand with us in overwhelming numbers, just as they did in 2024,” Trump said.

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