Women voters are a concern for Republicans. The evidence suggests that it should be.

This week, on the right they lost their minds over women voting for Kamala Harris — and the simple idea that women are allowed to vote for whoever they choose.

With polls showing women overwhelmingly supporting Harris over Donald Trumpand early voting data showing female voters outnumbering men in swing statesthe MAGA crisis suggests that many conservatives may have strict women underestimated in this election. And some of those voters seem justifiably scared of the potential consequences of aligning themselves with a deeply misogynistic movement.

And some of those voters seem justifiably scared of the potential consequences of aligning themselves with a deeply misogynistic movement.

Time will tell, but as I see it, these choices were always going to be based on the anger of many women over bad caused by Trump’s first presidency and their fears of further damage in a second term — and whether those things might sway them to vote for Harris.

On that front, there have already been troubling signs for the GOP. The electoral reactions to the overturning of Roe v. Wade by Trump-aligned Supreme Court justices gave Republicans a glimpse of what might be in store if they doubled down on life-threatening chauvinism. But this is the path they have chosen.

Activist Shannon Watts summed up the energy that fuels many women quite well in this week’s MSNBC special on women voters, hosted by Joy Reid and Alex Wagner.

Watts said women, especially white women, have broadly found that the excuse some men give for supporting Trump — that they’re doing it for economic reasons — is a cover for what their vote is. indeed about: controlling women and exercising power over them. Trump and his movement, I would say, did that more and more clearly One variety of ways. And Watts thinks women are tired of the facade.

“This idea that somehow it’s the economy that men care about — I don’t think that’s true. I think it’s preserving the patriarchy, and I think women see that and want to burn it down.” Watts said.

That energy she’s talking about aligns with what we’ve heard from voters, Democratic pollsters, Harris-Walz campaign officials and others who have gauged women’s enthusiasm before Election Day. Whether it means burning down patriarchy or building democracy, women seem eager to get the job done at the ballot box.

Whether it means burning down patriarchy or building democracy, women seem eager to get the job done at the ballot box.

I recently spoke with Gabrielle Wyatt, who founded The Highland Project, a nonpartisan organization that helps empower black women leaders. In August, the nonprofit organization launched a survey on black women voters—and, in short, found them to be set to zero and they have an “incredibly high” motivation to “show their political power.” More than 80 percent of those polled said they were “very motivated” to vote, and 94 percent said fighting racism and discrimination were the most important issues this election cycle.

This can have something to do with recent reports that black women — a key Democratic voting bloc — are driving early voter turnout in key states Georgia and Pennsylvania. Wyatt told me that black women prioritizing the fight against discrimination doesn’t mean they don’t care about “kitchen table” issues like the economy, but rather that these women tend to see these issues as inextricably linked to the fight for equality. .

I asked her to explain this, as the idea aligns with Harris’s message about women’s economic well-being being linked to the fight against misogyny. I wrote about the vice president clever explanation of this when he appeared on the “Call Her Daddy” podcast. Wyatt explained why the message seems to resonate:

It’s important to start connecting some of these seemingly isolated issues in our research to say that when we’re in a system where 94 percent of black women say their main concern is racism and discrimination, when they say that” we’re concerned about the rise of white nationalism, when I say the black maternal health crisis is one thing, and the mental health crisis is one thing, we have to ask: Are we creating an economy that centers the well-being of black women? Are we creating a democracy that centers the well-being of black women? do we create something else?

Wyatt said candidates linking these issues speak to many black women’s holistic ideas of safety — which include their economic stability, the safety of their communities and their ability to make their own health choices. Harris has focused on this message in communicating with women throughout the campaign, and at least it seems to be paying off.

We’ll soon find out if that’s enough to win him the White House. But for now, it’s clearly making the MAGA world sweat.