The American Politics of Motherhood Become a Campaign-Trail Cudgel

"The presidential race has exposed a fault line in American political culture over the deeply personal decision to have children.

She is not humble. She has no stake in the future of the country. She and other childless women are looking down on Americans who have chosen to reproduce.

These are a few of the broadsides Republicans have lobbed against Vice President Kamala Harris, who has come under attack not for something she has done or said but for something she doesn’t have: biological children.

The latest jab came from Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders of Arkansas. This past week, she took the stage at a campaign event for former President Donald J. Trump and declared that her three children had given her the sort of humility that is important to maintain in national politics.

“My kids keep me humble,” she said to the crowd. “Unfortunately, Kamala Harris doesn’t have anything keeping her humble.”

Call it the motherhood divide. The presidential race has exposed a fault line in American culture — or at least among today’s most prominent politicians — over the deeply personal (and usually private) decision to have children. With an election likely to be decided by razor-thin margins, perhaps by women whose votes could tip the scale either way, motherhood itself has become a campaign-trail cudgel.

Conservatives are trying to appeal to voters who may see an existential value in motherhood. Prominent Republicans, including Senator JD Vance of Ohio, Mr. Trump’s running mate, have tied their concerns about reproduction to the declining birthrate in the United States, disparaging childless women like Ms. Harris in the process.

“This is not about criticizing people who, for various reasons, didn’t have kids,” Mr. Vance said in an interview with the commentator Megyn Kelly in July, addressing past comments he had made calling Ms. Harris and other top Democrats “childless cat ladies” without a direct stake in the country’s future. “This is about criticizing the Democratic Party for becoming anti-family and anti-child.”

Democrats report having fewer children than Republicans do. According to a 2022 survey by the University of Chicago, about 38 percent of Democrats had never had children as of that year, compared with 26 percent of Republicans." [1]

The question of giving birth to children of permanent residents of the country is a question of the survival of the nation's culture.

1.  The Politics of Motherhood Become a Campaign-Trail Cudgel: News Analysis. Rogers, Katie.  New York Times (Online) New York Times Company. Sep 22, 2024.