How reproductive rights, Greek life, and celebrity endorsements could prove key to Kamala Harris' bid for women voters

• Women voters could prove key to Kamala Harris' election bid.
• Women tend to register and vote at higher rates than men.
• Here's how reproductive rights, Greek life, and celebrity endorsements could help Harris secure their votes.

With the US election drawing ever nearer, both Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump are turning their attention to a few specific voter groups in a number of key swing states that will likely determine who will be sitting in the White House come January.

One group where Harris will hope to make big gains is women, who tend to register and vote at higher rates than men.

And it seems to be going well for the vice president so far.

Since President Joe Biden dropped out of the running for the election in late July, a number of polls have shown women leaning increasingly toward the Democrats. A recent national Suffolk University/USA Today poll showed women favored Harris by 21 points.

A key area closely connected to gender voting patterns — and which has helped tip elections toward the Democrats in recent years — is abortion rights.

After the Roe v. Wade ruling was overturned in 2022, ending women's right to abortion nationally, the US saw a rise in reproductive rights activism as many states imposed abortion restrictions or bans. Harris' campaign has sought to build on their concerns and activism.

Harris reshaped the election race by "advocating for women's health, reproductive freedom and abortion access more vocally and more powerfully than Biden did and than the Trump/Vance ticket is," Shana Gadarian, a professor of political science at Syracuse University, has said.

"She ties access to reproductive care to a theme of progress and freedom in ways that Biden did not," she added.

Women-led political action committees (PACs) and organizations have also been rallying behind the vice president over the issue.

Ali Monge, the head of the Women for American Values and Ethics PAC, told Business Insider that in a post-Roe world, women "want our voices heard."

"Women are fired up again, and [Harris] being a minority as well says a lot. It's pretty empowering and a lot of youth are excited about that," she added.

Jessica Mackler, the president of EMILY'S List, another PAC that supports abortion rights, said, "The energy and excitement that we see around the vice president's candidacy are because she has led her whole life on issues that really matter to women voters and matter to voters across the country, like reproductive freedom."

For his part, Trump seems well aware of the threat the gender gap poses to his election bid, and he has continued to try to walk a fine line on issues like abortion by keeping the Evangelical voters in his base enthused without sacrificing women who support abortion access. He has avoided answering repeated questions about whether he would veto a national abortion ban.

In August, Trump wrote on Truth Social: "My Administration will be great for women and their reproductive rights" — that's despite his previous claims that he was the most "pro-life president" in history.

Greek life

Harris is also looking to her sorority sisters for support as the election looms.

The vice president is a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha, the US's oldest Black sorority and part of the National Pan-Hellenic Council — more commonly known as the Divine Nine.

The roughly 4 million members that make up the council could play an important role in drumming up support for Harris, with members having previously backed her as she rose through the political ranks.

"We have nine organizations, and if we all mobilize as we have, we're going to get the vote out," Tonya Ly, a founding member of the Run Sister Run PAC, told BI.

"They've already sent out a statement to mobilize because they can't directly endorse a candidate, but they can mobilize and get voters out. So they're having voter registration drives. They're figuring out how to get people to the polls. This happens every year, but it's on a larger scale now because we want change in the country," she added.

Black women are also getting behind Harris' running mate, Tim Walz, who has established himself as a reproductive rights messenger in his own right.

As governor of Minnesota, Walz has signed legislation to establish a new Office for Missing and Murdered Black Women and Girls and has also sought to protect abortion laws.

"He is the right white man for the job," Brenda Coles, a Virginia-based activist told Politico.

Walz has also opened up about his own family's fertility journey.

"Even if you've never experienced the hell of infertility, I guarantee you know somebody who has," Walz said at the DNC in August. "I remember praying each night for a call with good news, the pit in my stomach when the phone would ring, and the agony when we heard the treatments hadn't worked."

"I'm letting you in on how we started our family because that's a big part of what this election is about—freedom," he added.

Walz also offers a sharp contrast to Trump's VP pick, JD Vance, who has faced public backlash over a number of controversial resurfaced comments about women, including his now infamous labeling of Harris and other high-profile Democrats as "childless cat ladies."

Announcing her endorsement of Harris on Instagram, pop star Taylor Swift made particular note of the two candidates' running mates, saying she had been "heartened and impressed" by Harris' selection of Walz as he had "been standing up for LGBTQ+ rights, IVF, and a woman's right to her own body for decades."

She also took the opportunity to take a jab at Vance, signing off her post: "Taylor Swift ... Childless Cat Lady."

The Swift effect

Harris has received a host of major celebrity endorsements since Biden dropped out of the race, including big names like Swift and Billie Eilish. Beyoncé has also seemingly shown her support for the vice president, allowing her to use her song "Freedom" for her presidential campaign — the same song she moved to block Trump from using.

While celebrity endorsements are typically unlikely to have too much of an effect on voting, there are exceptions.

And Swift and Beyoncé have the kind of global followings that could generate a sizable impact.

As Darrell West, a senior fellow in the Governance Studies program at the Brookings Institution writes: "The musicians' strong followings among young people, African Americans, and women, combined with their demonstrated ability to amplify another individual's messages, would suggest they could be very helpful to Harris."

"In a close race, little things matter so it is possible that Swift/Beyoncé endorsements could be decisive in areas where the vice president needs a boost," he continued, adding: "These superstar endorsements could matter in exactly the same way as when Winfrey helped Obama more than a decade ago."