In picking Walz, Harris upends notion of ‘women’s issues’

Lia DeGroot, Sandhya Raman and Ariel Cohen | (TNS) CQ-Roll Call

When Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris picked her running mate earlier this month, she chose a politician many undecided voters are used to seeing: a white-haired, Midwestern man with typical American values.

But in Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, she’s found something different: a male politician who frequently speaks about fertility treatments as a men’s issue. He and his wife Gwen struggled for years to have children before finding success in a method known as intrauterine insemination.

“I have to tell you, this is very personal for my family,” Walz said in his stump speech. “I remember every time the phone rang, I’d catch my breath, I’d feel nervousness, and then it would be a crushing feeling when they told us that the treatments didn’t work. The agony of that I can feel to this day.”

Democrats had already united on reproductive rights as their top election issue for 2024. But Walz is the highest profile political candidate to share a personal reproductive health story.

He’s also a man.

The Harris-Walz campaign has avoided focusing on identity politics, often used by Democrats to tout possible precedent setting in elections.

Instead, they’re messaging on how their issues could affect different groups on issues that are traditionally labeled as “women’s issues,” such as reproductive health and childcare as a way to differentiate themselves from the Republican ticket.

“The identity of the candidate can be important, but I think it’s less important than the policy positions of the candidate,” said Carrie Baker, who chairs the Program for the Study of Women, Gender and Sexuality at Smith College. “If men feel like there’s a candidate who can relate to them and who is speaking about issues that they care about, then they’re much more likely to be moved to vote for that candidate.”

Fertility policy

When Walz spoke about his and his wife’s experience using fertility treatments to start their family, most people thought he meant IVF. But Gwen Walz clarified this week that the couple used intrauterine insemination, a method that hasn’t been targeted by anti-abortion groups.

Still, Walz’s openness to speak about intrauterine insemination or IUI follows a larger political debate about fertility treatments following a February Alabama Supreme Court ruling that frozen embryos have legal protections as people.

The Alabama case and the ramifications for in vitro fertilization, a form of assisted reproductive technology also known as IVF, have further highlighted differences between the parties on the issue.

IUI, which involves placing sperm directly into the uterus near the time of ovulation, is not considered a form of assisted reproductive technology — medical procedures that involve handling eggs or embryos. But, like IVF, it is used to boost the odds of pregnancies among couples experiencing fertility issues.

Republicans have walked a thin line on addressing fertility treatments. The GOP-led resolution and legislation unveiled this year avoid criticizing the procedure but do not address how IVF can coexist with fetal personhood laws and avoid alienating the religious right.

Democrats have capitalized on the issue, framing Republicans as being anti-IVF.

Only two GOP senators — Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska — voted in June for a Senate bill to codify access to commonly used fertility treatments.

“Pushing a bill that is haphazardly drafted and destined to fail does a disservice to all women who may pursue IVF treatments,” Sen, Bill Cassidy, R-La., said following the vote.

GOP vice presidential nominee and Ohio Sen. JD Vance voted to block consideration. But he’s also defended access to these treatments.

“My view is babies are good, families are good,” Vance said in an interview with the Columbus NBC affiliate earlier this year. “And I want there to be as much access to fertility treatment as possible. And I think 99 percent of people agree with me, Democrat, Republican, or in the middle.”

Most Americans support access to IVF across gender and party lines, in contrast to critiques that reproductive health is an issue squarely for women voters.

Melissa Goodman, the executive director of the Center on Reproductive Health, Law and Policy at UCLA, said she thinks Republicans are trying to veil their agenda by saying publicly that they support IVF, but acting another way.

She said policies that give embryos and fetuses the same rights as people under the law inherently put access to IVF at risk.

“It’s very rare that you get such a stark choice, where an election can take a country in such a wildly different direction policy-wise between the two choices,” she said.

Polling shows that most Americans support access to reproductive health, said Baker, but it may not be an issue that motivates some people to go out and vote as their top priority issue.

“Young men still favor access to contraception and abortion. It’s just not their top issue. But for women, it is their top issue, and so I think that’s actually fueling the potentially historic gender divide that we are likely to see in November,” said Baker.

How Democrats are tackling gender

Democrats have an opportunity to leverage Walz’s track record to bring men into other issues that politicians have traditionally treated as women’s issues, ranging from bolstering childcare to requiring schools to supply students with menstrual products.

“Having a male candidate like Gov. Walz talk about things that are gendered and are usually thought of as women’s issues is really important, because it acknowledges all of the men who care deeply about these issues too,” said Kathleen Dolan, a political science professor at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. “When we hide all of the men who are affected by these issues, I think we end up talking about the issue itself in a less rich way.”

National polling shows likely voters are fairly split on party lines, in line with the gender gap in every presidential election since the 1980s.

An August Times/Siena poll of likely swing state voters found that 58 percent of women planned to vote for Harris and 55 percent of men would support Trump.

Dolan cautioned it was important not to treat voters as a monolith by gender, as many men support Harris and many women support Trump.

To gain ground, Baker said, it’s crucial for Democrats to illustrate how their key issues can also woo male voters. Walz could help with that.

“Being a man means protecting those around you and protecting the most vulnerable around you,” said Rahna Epting, executive director of progressive organization MoveOn.

“Being a man means expanding freedoms and sharing power for those around you.”

Baker said it’s not just that Walz is a male candidate, but that he’s also been a high school football coach, in the military, a teacher, and is working class.

“He’s relatable to a lot of men in a way that maybe Biden wasn’t,” she said. “He’s focused on that.”

Childcare and education

In May 2024, Walz announced $6 million in statewide childcare and community organization grants this year.

Harris has also pledged to reduce childcare costs. The updated Democratic platform released Monday seeks to cap childcare at $10 per day for millions of families.

Nearly a third of employed U.S. voters are caregivers, but just 36 percent of that group said their employers offered paid family caregiving leave, according to a June Morning Consult, BPC Action and Pivotal Ventures poll.

Walz has also focused on menstrual health, signing legislation in 2023 requiring schools to provide free menstrual products for grades 4-12.

Republicans have criticized the law, circulating the hashtag #TamponTim on social media and claiming that the law requires schools to put menstrual products in men’s restrooms for transgender boys who may need the products.

But the law doesn’t actually specify gender, stating instead that products must be available to “all menstruating students” in restrooms, per each school district’s plan.

“We don’t have enough male leaders standing up on these issues, and I think that part of the problem of continuing to think of them as women’s issues is that it allows men to ignore them at some level,” said Dolan.

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