Fellas, is it gay to vote for a woman?

and isn't voting for another guy the gayer thing to do?

If Kamala Harris loses the election, it will be because Democrats failed to win over men, especially the young ones.

That’s the prediction David Hogg made on X, and it’s sparked a million think pieces—one of which comes from yours truly. Given that so many men were willing to vote for Joe Biden as one said “whether he was dead or not," it raises the question: why does the prospect of a woman rising to the top of that same ticket suddenly leave so many men undecided? If Biden's appeal wasn’t tied to his vigor or charisma, but rather his policies and perceived strength, why does the gender of his potential successor shift the equation so drastically?

Women are fine voting for men. We do it all the time. Female voters played a decisive role in Barack Obama's victories, with 55% of women supporting him in 2012. In that same election, Black women voted at a higher rate than any other demographic group across race, ethnicity, or gender​. Even when two men are on the ballot, women are more likely to be registered and cast their votes compared to men, consistently turning out at higher rates. Far from begrudgingly voting for male candidates, women regularly outpace men in their political engagement and voter turnout, despite the candidates not reflecting their gender.

So the natural question becomes, why do men struggle doing what women have been doing for decades?

Photo by Nima Sarram on Unsplash

First, it’s the misogyny, stupid. The disparity between women's willingness to vote for men and men's reluctance to vote for women stems from deep-rooted cultural and societal norms around gender and leadership. All the data suggests that traditional views of leadership have long been associated with masculine traits like assertiveness, dominance, and decisiveness, which can cause some men (and even women) to view female politicians as less suited for political office​. Women will be more inclined to vote for a female candidate, but we still hold all the same biases that men do about female leadership. We’re all just harder on women, and yes that includes women too.

But sexism doesn’t fully explain why the Democrats have been losing men because it started before Kamala Harris was on the ticket. While progressives have nominated a woman in two of the last three presidential elections, their struggle with male voters persisted when they crowned Biden as the nominee. Biden did perform better with white men in 2020 compared to Hillary Clinton’s 2016 performance, improving his share by 8 percentage points—from Clinton’s 32% to Biden’s 40%. This gain narrowed the gap with Donald Trump, but it wasn’t transformative. Trump still won a majority of white men, just by a smaller margin than in 2016. This modest improvement underscores a deeper issue: Democrats have struggled to effectively communicate with and retain male voters, especially the white working-class ones, even with Biden’s centrist appeal​.

The Democratic Party started steadily losing men as a core constituency over the past few decades, with male voters increasingly shifting toward the Republican Party since the 1980s. So while running women on their ticket certainly didn’t help, it didn’t cause this shift. This trend is particularly pronounced among white men, who have gradually moved away from the Democrats, as their platform has increasingly focused on issues like racial justice, LGBTQ+ rights, and gender equality.

The Self-Sabotage of the Male Vote

The somewhat comforting news is that the Democrats are clearly starting to try to bridge this gap. Many of Harris’ latest speeches and tv appearances have been for the dudes. She’s talked about shooting people, touting her fondness for fracking and promising to maintain America as the "most lethal fighting force." By focusing on power and capability, she’s pushing back against the narrative that she’s weak on those issues and giving more "alpha" men the permission structure they need to vote for her without compromising their ideals. While these messages have left some progressives scratching their heads, they could resonate with the independent voters that Democrats need to secure a victory.

With just 41 days left, there’s a real chance for Democrats to nail their messaging and show men how progressive policies actually benefit them, unlike the GOP’s. We can start by addressing the absurd notion that voting for a woman is somehow “gay” because isn’t liking women the ultimate proof of straight masculinity? By that logic, wouldn’t voting for a guy be the gayer move? To win men over, we need to help them see through these nonsensical, toxic messages. Liking women is hot; voting for them is even manlier!

The left has no excuse for failing to craft an alternative to the right’s messaging to men, especially when the right’s best argument is this:

The time to rewrite this narrative is now, and we’re far from too late. We have a real chance to craft a message that speaks to men, using positive masculinity to make the case for Harris. Think about it: she protects women; Trump preys on them. Real masculine strength is about lifting others up, and while Harris builds communities, Trump builds walls. Harris debates with logic; Trump yells into the void. One candidate embodies discipline, while the other can’t avoid taking the bait. Harris might not be a man, but she’s the manlier candidate. Voting for her? That’s real masculinity. Put that on a bumper sticker.

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