Biden aims to rally GOP suburban women

DOYLESTOWN, PA. •Thirty miles north of Philadelphia, upscale subdivisions such as Colonial Commons interrupt dairy farms, centuries-old roadside stone houses and the winding Neshaminy Creek that flows between Doylestown and Newtown. Both cities were once rural outposts that have morphed into fashionable commercial, dining and shopping hubs.

This is one of the most closely watched areas in U.S. politics. President Joe Biden ran up his numbers in Bucks County, which includes both cities, on the way to flipping Pennsylvania from Republican Donald Trump four years ago, and won among suburban women in the state by a substantial margin.

Biden and his allies are trying to replicate Democrats’ success with suburban women this year and signalling they can win a small number of Republican women who may be opposed to a second Trump presidency. But in dozens of interviews this month in Pennsylvania’s Bucks County, there was little evidence that traditional Republicans were ready to abandon Trump, the presumptive GOP nominee, in significant numbers.

“I feel like I have to vote for the policies, not the person,” said Lynn Natale, a 62-year-old interior designer. While Natale criticized Trump’s rhetorical style — “It’s like he doesn’t have the words to speak directly to women” — she said she supported Trump’s ideas on the economy and immigration.

“The alternative is unacceptable,” she said.

Conservative groups such as Women4us and Republican Voters Against Trump are mobilizing in suburban Philadelphia with hopes of peeling off GOP voters.

Stephanie Sharp, with Women4us, pointed to former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley receiving 22 per cent of the vote in the four-county suburban Philadelphia bloc in the April Republican presidential primary. That translated to 42,032 votes won by Haley six weeks after she suspended her campaign, in what was an apparent protest vote against Trump.

“Pennsylvania’s closed Republican primary demonstrated an appetite for something better,” said Sharp, whose group is planning outreach to Republican women in the most competitive presidential campaign states, including Pennsylvania.

“Republican women have had enough of our votes being taken for granted,” Sharp added.

About six in 10 suburban women in Pennsylvania voted for Biden in 2020, according to AP Votecast, an expansive survey of voters nationwide, while four in 10 voted for Trump. But this year, many suburban women aren’t happy to be faced with the same matchup, a trend that’s true of Americans at large, according to public polling.