Even if Kamala Harris isn't talking about gender, everyone else is

Gender remains an inescapable part of the election, the topic underlying much of the race — even if Kamala Harris isn't leaning into how she would make history.

In just two weeks, Kamala Harris could make history as America’s first female president. You don’t hear her talk about it much. 

“The experience that I am having is one in which it is clear that regardless of someone’s gender, [voters] want to know that their president has a plan to lower costs, that their president has a plan to secure America in the context of our position around the world,” the vice president told NBC News in an interview Tuesday. 

But while Harris isn’t talking about it, everyone else is. 

First, there are all the ways that former President Donald Trump himself has gone after Harris using gendered slights, calling her “weak” and “dumb as a rock.” Then, there are the “Trump or the Tramp“ shirts. There were also the social media jokes that after Trump went to McDonald’s, Harris would then “do Five Guys.” And there was the man who, at a recent Trump rally in Reno, Nevada, yelled, “That hoe’s got to go” — and then quickly apologized to the woman by his side. 

On the other side are the Harris supporters who are excited about being part of history. Anne Landers, who is over 70 years old and from Decatur, Georgia, said she was supporting Harris for her mother and “all the women” in her family who were immigrants. Ruby Smalls, 57, from Savannah, Georgia, said the presidency needed “the touch of a woman.” And there is the loose-knit network of women placing sticky notes in places like restrooms and locker rooms, urging them to support Harris. 

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2024-election/kamala-harris-talking-gender-election-rcna177139

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