/
August 20, 2024
The Feminist Movement Is Powering the Kamala Harris Campaign
At a DNC gathering of women leaders, a reminder: “You don’t have to get ready if you stay ready.”
Alexis McGill Johnson, chief executive officer of Planned Parenthood Federation, speaks at an event marking the 50th anniversary of the Roe v. Wade decision.
(Peter Zay / Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
Chicago—A political partnership between Planned Parenthood Action Fund, the reproductive health powerhouse, and gun-safety leaders Moms Demand Action/Everytown might not make intuitive sense at first glance. But when I walked into a briefing here on Tuesday about their new joint initiative, realized there is enormous overlap between their goals and their constituencies, and saw a hell of a lot of people I knew from years of covering feminist politics, it clicked: Yes, these are both feminist issues.
Both groups are overwhelmingly powered by women. Sometimes, they’re even powered by the same women. Moms Demand’s (relatively) new executive director, the dynamic Angela Ferrell-Zebala, was the national director of strategic partnerships for the Planned Parenthood Action Fund.
That sense of shared purpose was everywhere during the event, which was held near the site of the Democratic National Convention. The activists in the room clearly knew one another from years, even decades, of working on these interlocking issues.
“I think that’s a big part of it,” Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, who shared the stage with Ferrell-Zeballa and Alexis McGill Johnson of PPAF, told me after the event. She knew many women personally who’d moved back and forth between the issues. Plus, she said, the constituencies overlap: “It’s moms who are tired of worrying if their kids are gonna get shot at school. It’s moms who are worried about [choice]. I am animated by worry about my kids.”
It was not lost on this jubilant crowd that Vice President Kamala Harris, now the Democratic nominee, happens to be the administration’s point person on both issues. The clear ambassador of reproductive justice, Harris also runs the White House task force on gun violence prevention. That made the alliance make perfect sense.
Read Joan Walsh’s profile of Kamala Harris
“Women are behind this movement,” Ferrell-Zebala told the crowd. Also, it’s about bodily autonomy. We don’t want to be forced to have a child; we don’t want to be kept from having a child; we don’t want to be killed or have our child killed. The gun laws and abortion laws in our country make all of those things possible if not likely, against the wishes of the majority of Americans
Another overlapping theme: danger: As McGill-Johnson pointed out, 22 states have banned access to abortion, affecting 43 percent of women, and more than half of all Black women. “They have to travel. Abortion bans are making everything more dangerous. Patients get sent to parking lots to wait until sepsis sets in so they can justify an abortion procedure.”
Current Issue
Our lack of gun-safety laws, of course, makes everything more dangerous. “As a mother of four, I’m pretty pissed that [gun violence] is the leading cause of death for kids, teenagers and young adults in this country,” Ferrell-Zebala chimed in. “Not car accidents, not cancer, but guns…. You have to negotiate every day about whether you will be safe.”
She added: “Gun violence prevention, gun safety and reproductive rights: It’s a triple threat [politically]. It brings out young people, people of color, women. It also brings out suburban women, especially college-educated women…. More and more people are rejecting extremism, and candidates who are not in line with their values when it comes to choice or gun safety.”
It was impossible for this group not to acknowledge the way the nomination of Vice President Kamala Harris has changed, well, everything about the 2024 race. Ferrell-Zebala asked McGill Johnson, rhetorically, what happened.
“There was a seismic change,” McGill Johnson said. “The joy we are seeing on the ground, the energy, it’s clearly powerful. Black women for Kamala broke Zoom a month ago.
“Part of that had a lot to do with the fact that the organizing had been happening. You don’t have to get ready if you stay ready. And that’s what this movement work is about. I think we’re in a radical realignment around freedom. Rebuilding and reimagining a movement perspective. What happens when you put freedom at the center of the work?” The crowd began chanting, “Freedom!”
Ferrell-Zebala explained how “reproductive justice” included both gun safety and reproductive health: “You have the right to choose to start a family or not. And if you choose to, you should be able to do that in safety.” That means healthcare support for mother and child, but also safety from gun violence.
Ferrell-Zebala said her group did some message testing in 2022. “We saw when our gun-sense candidates made a clear connection between these issues, they saw a boost of support from five to seven points.”
Whitmer was asked how she’s broken through on these issues in Michigan, which is essentially a purple state that Democrats win when they do the work. Her answer resonated with me.
“Empowering and engaging people to tell their stories,” she said decisively. “I have been doing roundtables for people to share their stories and I’ve found it’s the greatest most persuasive thing. I mean, it’s a horrible thing that for a woman to be taken seriously, she has to talk about the most horrible thing that ever happened to her. I shared on the [state] Senate floor that I was raped in college. It was not something I expected to do. It was not easy to do…. We ask women to bare their souls. We ask gun violence survivors to bear their souls and relive their trauma every day. Not everybody can.”
When she convened these roundtables in Michigan, “I didn’t ask people their political affiliation,” she said. “If they wanted to share their story about what happened when somebody shouldn’t have had a gun, I wanted them to know we cared about them. The same with women who expect to make the fundamental decisions about their bodies and their futures. So in doing roundtables about these issues, I have found it’s been the most persuasive way to get other people to buy in. Their neighbors, friends, and relatives.”
The women introduced a dramatic ad jointly produced by both groups, in which Trump bragged about ending the constitutional right to abortion—and doing “nothing” on guns.
“For 54 years they tried to get Roe v. Wade terminated, and I’m proud to have done it,” the convicted felon droned on in the ad. “During my four years, nothing happened, and there was great pressure on me about guns, but we did nothing.”
Then, the voice-over: “But if you want a president who’ll protect abortion rights, and take real action to prevent gun violence, there’s only one choice: Kamala Harris.” It was a very good ad and a very great crowd-pleaser.
Popular
“swipe left below to view more authors”Swipe →
Good Riddance, Minouche Shafik
Good Riddance, Minouche Shafik
Republicans Have a Bad Case of Walz Derangement Syndrome
Republicans Have a Bad Case of Walz Derangement Syndrome
Raphael Warnock Lights Up the Convention With a Preacher’s Fire
Raphael Warnock Lights Up the Convention With a Preacher’s Fire
Waving Goodbye to the Neoliberal Democratic Party
Waving Goodbye to the Neoliberal Democratic Party
Still, it’s not just Trump who brings these issues together. It’s the Trump-abetted shift in the Republican Party. The freedom agenda Harris is advancing, with help from feminists (and Beyoncé), feels like a powerful way to counter that shift. For so long, Republicans claimed the word “freedom” for themselves. But since an antidemocratic minority has used voter suppression, gerrymandering, the Electoral College, and (thus) the Supreme Court to suppress majority rule, many recognize we are losing our freedom, and we can feel it. Especially women.
Americans overwhelmingly support gun-safety laws and abortion rights (and maternal healthcare) but we can’t get it because of the outsize control of the radical right at every level of government. Can that break through this election?
This coalition is determined that it will.
Can we count on you?
In the coming election, the fate of our democracy and fundamental civil rights are on the ballot. The conservative architects of Project 2025 are scheming to institutionalize Donald Trump’s authoritarian vision across all levels of government if he should win.
We’ve already seen events that fill us with both dread and cautious optimism—throughout it all, The Nation has been a bulwark against misinformation and an advocate for bold, principled perspectives. Our dedicated writers have sat down with Kamala Harris and Bernie Sanders for interviews, unpacked the shallow right-wing populist appeals of J.D. Vance, and debated the pathway for a Democratic victory in November.
Stories like these and the one you just read are vital at this critical juncture in our country’s history. Now more than ever, we need clear-eyed and deeply reported independent journalism to make sense of the headlines and sort fact from fiction. Donate today and join our 160-year legacy of speaking truth to power and uplifting the voices of grassroots advocates.
Throughout 2024 and what is likely the defining election of our lifetimes, we need your support to continue publishing the insightful journalism you rely on.
Thank you,
The Editors of The Nation
Joan Walsh
Joan Walsh, a national affairs correspondent for The Nation, is a coproducer of The Sit-In: Harry Belafonte Hosts The Tonight Show and the author of What’s the Matter With White People? Finding Our Way in the Next America. Her new book (with Nick Hanauer and Donald Cohen) is Corporate Bullsh*t: Exposing the Lies and Half-Truths That Protect Profit, Power and Wealth In America.
More from The Nation
AOC’s DNC Speech Was a Betrayal of the Gaza Movement
AOC’s DNC Speech Was a Betrayal of the Gaza Movement
Ocasio-Cortez’s decision to lend her credibility to the Biden-Harris administration’s false narrative around Gaza was a stinging slap in the face.
I Saw Racist Candidate George Wallace in 1968
I Saw Racist Candidate George Wallace in 1968
…and I see racist candidate Trump in 2024. We’re not going back!
How Teaching Shaped Tim Walz’s Politics
How Teaching Shaped Tim Walz’s Politics
From classrooms to campaign trails, the vice presidential nominee has continually drawn on his experience as an educator to influence his priorities in office.
Raphael Warnock Lights Up the Convention With a Preacher’s Fire
Raphael Warnock Lights Up the Convention With a Preacher’s Fire
The Georgia senator showed why the Black church remains the cornerstone of the Democratic Party.
Real-Time “Fact-Checking” Is the Lowest Form of Journalism
Real-Time “Fact-Checking” Is the Lowest Form of Journalism
Quibbling over technical errors is a fool’s errand when one major faction is seizing on organized lying as a mass recruitment tactic.
Waving Goodbye to the Neoliberal Democratic Party
Waving Goodbye to the Neoliberal Democratic Party
Hillary Clinton’s DNC speech marked the end of the centrist consensus of the Clinton–Obama years.