UMass Boston

(Boston, Nov. 5, 2024) Early this morning Donald Trump won his bid for the US presidency. Regrettably, we have not broken the barrier to elect female leadership to the White House. Nevertheless, we must celebrate the hard work and efforts to break this barrier for not only women, but women of color, as Vice President Kamala Harris identifies both as a Black and South Asian woman.  Furthermore, we are facing a conservative Supreme Court and a Republican Senate. For now, the House has not been decided.

We must consider how we arrived at the outcome, the implications of the election, and where we go from here.

According to Edison Research Reuters exit poll results, there was a strong race and gender gap in the race for the White House. Trump did not do well with college-educated white women but captured over half (52%) of the overall white women’s vote, and a tiny portion of the Black female vote (7%). 

Furthermore, Trump made increasing inroads in the Latino community and Black communities, especially among men. Trump received 45% of the Hispanic vote, including 37% of Latino women and 54% of Latino men. Inroads were also made into the Black vote, with 20% of Black males voting for Trump.  

How did we miss the mark and why? There have been a lot of opinions about this. Pundits suggested that the economy was the most prominent issue for Trump voters, and the culture wars, and anti- abortion were also strong contenders. Others note that the country was not ready for a woman, and particularly a woman of color in the White House.

Implications

At CWPPP we use an intersectional lens to focus on women’s representation in politics and the social, health and economic well-being of women and families. This election has significant implications for women, people of color, and immigrants. Here are some key points.

Racial and Social Justice and Democracy Writ Large

Donald Trump boasted during the campaign that he would deploy the U.S. military on domestic soil, including to suppress protests he deems riots, patrol Democratic-run cities he deems crime dens, and hunt for undocumented immigrants. The main point here is that these actions will carry profound implications for individual rights and constraints on federal power. Further, he will suppress free speech including cries for racial justice, a Middle East ceasefire, and more.Those most affected will be people of color and young people.

Reproductive Justice and Women’s Rights 

Even in the context of threats to reproductive rights, the MeToo Movement, the pandemic, and other proven threats to women, gender expansive individuals, and people of color, Trump still won. So, what are the implications for reproductive justice in this country?

Reproductive justice is defined as the right to have or not to have children as desired, and once people do have children, providing them with a safe and equitable environment in which to grow.

The negative impacts of the election are not only on access to abortion care, but studies show that there are indirect consequences on birth outcomes due to this lack of access to abortion, including maternal mortality, birth defects, low birth weight, preterm delivery, and delayed or denied maternity care. Black and brown birthing people have been particularly affected. 

News sources note that Trump could effectively ban abortion nationwide, including recognizing fetal personhood, the longtime goal of the anti-abortion movement, without congressional input. Furthermore, Trump may be under pressure from the anti-abortion groups that have ardently supported him to take other actions that would go much further than the 15-week national bans that congressional Republicans have proposed since Roe v. Wade was overturned. 

These include reversing federal guidance directing doctors, even in states with bans, to provide abortion in cases of medical emergency; using administrative agencies to ban abortion pills; and using his executive powers to achieve the anti-abortion movement’s goal: recognizing fetal personhood in the Constitution.

Those actions would not require cooperation from Congress and could play out in the far reaches of the federal bureaucracy by Trump appointees. While any changes would almost certainly be challenged in court, the judges who hear the cases could be Trump appointees, existing or new. In addition, there are levers that he and his appointees can pull, far short of an all-out abortion ban that would make abortion much more difficult — if not illegal — in all states where it still remains legal.

Those moves could effectively override state abortion rights ballot measures that voters have passed since the court reversed Roe v. Wade two years ago — and the additional state measures that were voted on in 7 states last night. The easiest and perhaps most consequential move, and the one the anti-abortion movement is pushing hardest, would be enforcing the Comstock Act, enacted in 1873, which makes it a federal crime to send or receive materials “designed, adapted, or intended” for “obscene” or “abortion-causing” purposes. This would include abortion pills.

Immigration – which will impact strongly on people of color in the US and far beyond

According to a recent New York Times article, Donald Trump wants to not only revive some of the immigration policies criticized as draconian during his presidency but expand and toughen them. Trump is planning an extreme expansion of his first-term crackdown, including preparing to round up undocumented people already in the United States on a vast scale and detain them in sprawling camps while they wait to be expelled. 

The plans would sharply restrict both legal and illegal immigration in a multitude of ways. Trump wants to revive his first-term border policies, including banning entry by people from certain Muslim-majority nations and reimposing a Covid 19-era policy of refusing asylum claims — but this time he would base that refusal on assertions that migrants carry other infectious diseases. 

Further news reports note that to help speed mass deportations, Trump is preparing an enormous expansion of a form of removal that does not require due process hearings. And to get around any refusal by Congress to appropriate the necessary funds, Trump would redirect money in the military budget.

Students would also be affected. The visas of foreign students who participated in Palestinian rights protests would be canceled. Similarly, it is possible that numerous people who have been allowed to live in the country temporarily for humanitarian reasons would also lose that status and be kicked out, including thousands of Afghans. Trump would also try to end birthright citizenship for babies born in the United States to undocumented parents.

Where do we go from here?

 How do we protect the least of these?? How can we protect democracy and ensure an equitable economy? We must work hard to strategize and address these issues.

Despite these challenges, there is some good news! Angela Alsobrooks was elected as Maryland's first Black US senator and Lisa Blunt Rochester as Delaware's first Black and first woman US senator, doubling the number of Black women ever elected to the Senate, and raising the number of Blacks in the Senate to five. Delaware also elected Sarah McBride to an at-large seat making her the first transgender person in Congress. 

Here in Massachusetts, all the incumbent women including Senator Elizabeth Warren and Representatives Ayanna Pressley, Katherine Clark, and Lori Trahan were reelected. They are all fierce champions for women’s health and welfare, and wonderful role models for women and girls across the country.  Unfortunately, Massachusetts’ Ballot Measure Question 5 to Increase the Minimum Wage for Tipped Workers was rejected. It would have gradually increased the wages of tipped employees until they met the state minimum wage in 2029 while still permitting tipping.  This decision will primarily impact women, people of color, and low-income people.

Right now, there is some reckoning to be done within the Democratic party and it is time to regroup and build more broad coalitions and alliances, as well as carefully listening to the needs of our diverse electorate. It is time to reflect and perhaps move to update our democratic processes, extending the option for rank choice voting that is currently being used in 60 jurisdictions in 24 states. We should also consider abolishing the filibuster and more firmly address the multiple barriers women and gender expansive people face in running for and staying in office. Lastly, we need to call out and fight disinformation and bias in elections and beyond. We have no time to waste as we continue to fight for intersectional justice. At CWPPP, we will continue to do our part through our cutting-edge anti-racist and intersectional policy research, public programming, and training students in our Gender, Leadership, and Public Policy graduate programs. We are strong, we endure, we strive, and we will continue to lift each other up. Today we celebrate Kamala Harris and thank her for all her efforts to advance women and social justice!