What happened to women voters as Harris drew fewer of them than Biden in 2020? Even in pro-choice strongholds, economic concerns trumped reproductive rights.

To examine this I’m was joined the morning after the election on this WhoWhatWhy podcast by Amanda Becker, a 2023 Nieman Fellow and Washington correspondent for The 19th. She is the author of the book You Must Stand Up: The Fight for Abortion Rights in Post-Dobbs America.

She expalins that the great female firewall against Trump’s return never materialized. In fact, it crumbled.

Vice President Kamala Harris actually performed worse than Joe Biden did in 2020, capturing just 54 percent of women’s votes compared to his 57 percent.

Even more stunning: In states like Ohio and Kentucky, where women had recently mobilized to protect reproductive rights, the expected momentum vanished. What happened?

The answer challenges everything we thought we knew about women voters in post-Roe America.

Journalist and presidential historian Jonathan Alter's new book 'American Reckoning: Inside Trump's Trial—and My Own' offers unique insights from inside the Manhattan courtroom where he sat just 25 feet from Donald Trump. While the political landscape has shifted dramatically since those summer days, Alter finds hope in the long view of history. Drawing on his experience covering nine presidents, the former Newsweek senior editor and NBC News analyst reminds us how other nations have successfully fought to restore their democracies. His deeply personal meditation on democratic accountability becomes a call to arms, arguing that American democracy, while challenged, has the resilience to prevail.

On a recent California Sun podcast I spoke with Sasha Abramsky, author of the new book “Chaos Comes Calling.” Abramsky talks to me about how America’s deep polarization has cascaded from national politics down to local levels of governance. Abramsky reveals that even in small rural communities, once-mundane local issues like library policies, road repairs, and child care have become ideological battlegrounds. Abramsky illuminates how the pandemic, social media echo chambers, and talk radio amplified partisan voices, transforming school boards and city councils into microcosms of the broader red-blue divide.