Women for Trump lead cheers to peers
GOP midterm showing gives impetus to outreach
DES MOINES, Iowa — The Trump campaign has a message for its female supporters: It’s time to come out of hiding.
“There’s a lot of people that are fearful of expressing their support. And I want you ladies to know it’s OK to have felt that way, but we need to move past that, or the Democrats win,” said Tana Goertz, a Trump campaign adviser, at an Iowa “Women for Trump” event Thursday.
The Iowa event, held in the back room of a barbecue joint in a Des Moines suburb, was one of more than a dozen held in battleground states nationwide as part of a push to make the president’s case on the economy and train volunteers.
Over the course of his presidency and across public opinion polls, women have been consistently less supportive of President Donald Trump than men have. Suburban women in particular rejected Republicans in the 2018 midterm by margins that set off alarms for the party and the president.
Michigan Republican Party Chairwoman Laura Cox said at an event in Troy, Michigan, that Trump’s style is a turnoff for some female voters. But she told the audience of 100 women to focus instead on what Trump had accomplished during his first term.
“I get it. I say, ‘Listen, you never wonder what he thinks about people,’” she said. “Some people may not like what he says. But he delivers and has a very good track record of deliverables. And that’s what’s important. I try to get people focused on that, not the personality.”
In Iowa, Goertz listed a number of ways that she said women are benefiting from Trump’s presidency, including low unemployment, job creation and “safety.”
And she said his immigration policy is a winner there.
“When I lay my head down at night, I want to know that my children are safe, that a terrorist is not going to come into our country,” she said.
Trump himself called in to a gathering of hundreds in Tampa, Florida, and insisted, to cheers: “We’re doing great with women despite the fake news.”