Just when you thought we’d moved past blaming entire groups of people for election results, Joy Reid’s latest commentary swoops in with a bold—and baffling—target: white women voters. Following North Carolina’s recent election results, Reid didn’t mince words, claiming that “Black voters came through for Kamala Harris. White women voters did not.” She paints a picture of a demographic that, in her view, has somehow “failed” in what she sees as an obligation to lift women up, specifically by voting for Vice President Harris.
Reid’s frustration is clear, but her broad-brush approach? Not so much. By putting all the blame on “white women” as a monolithic group, Reid glosses over the complexity of the issues at play.
Sure, suburban white women are a powerful voting bloc, and it’s true they’ve historically leaned conservative. But to imply that they have an inherent duty to back one candidate over another—or that they somehow failed to “flip” in droves—is a simplification that, if anything, undercuts the political nuances at play.
When Reid argues that women, particularly white women, should vote based on gender solidarity or “feminist values” rather than party or personal beliefs, she’s engaging in a bit of wishful thinking. Voting is about priorities, values, and deeply personal decisions. The reality is that voters don’t fall neatly into boxes based on their gender or race, and to expect them to vote in predictable, groupthink patterns is to deny the individuality of millions of people.
There’s also a glaring irony in calling out white women for voting in alignment with conservative values, when Black voters are seldom criticized for voting largely as a bloc for Democratic candidates. In fact, Black voters are often praised for this very loyalty! The double standard here is palpable.
The notion that white women “failed” Harris because they didn’t respond to progressive messages on issues like reproductive rights may ignore another key factor: many voters, across races, prioritize issues like the economy, education, and crime policy. Reid’s insistence that white women betrayed their “fellow woman” misses the fact that gender doesn’t automatically dictate voting choices, and expecting it to might be more divisive than constructive.
Joy Reid is right about one thing: voters should be aware of what’s at stake when they cast their ballots. But implying that one group owes it to another to vote in a specific way is hardly the best way to bridge divides or to actually connect with voters who might feel increasingly alienated by this kind of rhetoric. Instead of helping us understand why some voters may have hesitated, this kind of blanket blame game only serves to add fuel to an already polarized fire.
