Biden makes women the key to his 2024 reelection plans

President Joe Biden’s 2024 reelection campaign is a pitch to women, underscoring his so-called care economy proposals, from universal prekindergarten to caregiver support, as priorities for a hypothetical second term.

Republicans have lost support from independent women, in part to the party’s opposition to abortion. But the GOP is not publicly concerned with its standing among the demographic, citing its strength on the economy and social issues, such as parental rights.

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Women will decide the 2024 election, “period, full stop,” according to Democratic strategist Mary Anne Marsh.

“Add abortion and guns, that’s why Democrats are gonna win everything in 2024,” Marsh told the Washington Examiner of Biden’s care economy policies. “The Republicans don’t; they’re on the wrong side of every issue and don’t have an answer for any of them.”

Biden’s decision to emphasize women is a “poll-driven” one, per Suffolk University Political Research Center Director David Paleologos.

“What we found in the midterm elections is that independent women broke from independent men,” Paleologos said. “Independent men voted Republican by about 20 [percentage] points in a lot of these Senate races, especially where [former President Donald] Trump-endorsed Senate candidates were the nominees, but independent women did not follow that path.”

“A very bad economy is probably the only path Donald Trump has to winning the general election, assuming he gets the nomination,” he added. “Anything that Joe Biden can do now to build up some continued goodwill with women, especially independent women, would potentially help to offset a really bad story next year.”

Biden’s average overall approval rating is net negative 11 points, 43%-54%, according to RealClearPolitics. His average approval regarding the economy and inflation is net negative 21 points and net negative 30 points, respectively. His average approval on immigration and crime is net negative 24 points and 17 points.

In response, the Republican National Committee, for instance, has amplified Gallup polling that indicates almost half of the public is concerned about their bank accounts as PacWest explores strategic options after three other regional banks collapsed this year, more than after Lehman Brothers folded during the 2008 financial crisis.

“Reminder: There is a direct link, admitted by Secretary Janet Yellen herself, between Biden’s inflationary agenda, rising interest rates, and the banking crisis,” RNC spokesman Tommy Pigott said. “Even as more bank failures may be on the horizon, Biden insists that his ‘economic plan is working.'”

“A president who spends most of his time hiding, while backing a destructive economic agenda, does nothing to inspire confidence,” Pigott went on. “Especially, one who claims he just needs to ‘finish the job.'”

Marsh countered that Republicans considered the economy to be a winning issue last year, but Democrats outperformed expectations during the 2022 midterm cycle.

“Of course, they care about the economy… and everything else, but if women are not only second-class citizens but citizens who start to have no rights whatsoever when it comes to making their own healthcare decisions or having their kids be safe in school or be safe in a grocery store or be safe on the street or anyplace else, then all of that, everything else is secondary,” she said. “The thing that Republicans will not be able to change between now and November 2024 is where they stand on abortion and where they stand on guns.”

But one other prospective weakness for Biden among women is education, with the Nation’s Report Card, conducted by the National Assessment of Educational Progress, finding this week that eighth grade U.S. history and civics scores are at record lows. Fourteen percent of students were at or above the test’s “proficient” mark in history, while 22% of students notched the same benchmark in civics.

“The difference between Democrats and Republicans is Democrats are working to make sure that kids do catch up in learning loss, make investments, more time in school, more programs to catch them up versus Republicans who just complain about it,” Marsh said.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre acknowledged this week how children “lost so much in the pandemic,” repeating how Biden reopened schools.

“But, yes, this is something that the president is concerned about, that the secretary of education is concerned about, and we’re going to continue to do the work to make sure our kids have the resources that they need,” she said. “It is important for our kids to learn about the history of this country … the amazing, good part of it and also the part that we have to learn from.”

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At the same time, Biden promoted his endorsement from National Education Association’s 3 million members last week, his spokesman reiterating how teachers “deserve a raise, not just praise.”

“The NEA stood with President Biden in 2020, and they’re committed to finishing the job together because they have seen him deliver real results,” Biden campaign spokesman Kevin Munoz said. “From investing in teacher pay to expanding Registered Apprenticeship Programs to address the educator shortage to defending the rights of students to learn in environments free of gun violence, the president has proven that he stands with America’s teachers and students.”