Female voters are a concern for Republicans. The evidence suggests they should.

This week, right-wingers they lost their minds over women voting for Kamala Harris – and the very idea that women can vote for anyone they want.

With polls showing women overwhelmingly supporting Harris over Donald Trumpand early voting data showing women voting outnumbering men in swing statesthe MAGA meltdown suggests that many conservatives may have had it severely We underestimated women in this election. Some of these voters seem rightly fearful of the potential consequences of joining a deeply misogynistic movement.

Some of these voters seem rightly fearful of the potential consequences of joining a deeply misogynistic movement.

Time will tell, but in my opinion these choices will always depend on the rage of many women over the harm done by Trump’s first presidency and their fears of further damage in a second term – and whether those things might lead them to vote for Harris.

There have already been some troubling signs for the GOP in this regard. The electoral objection the overturning of Roe v. Wade by Trump-aligned Supreme Court justices has given Republicans a glimpse of what might await them if they redouble their efforts toward literally life-threatening jingoism. But this is the path they chose.

Activist Shannon Watts summed up the energy that’s driving many women quite well this week on MSNBC’s special on women voters: Hosted by Joy Reid and Alex Wagner.

Watts said women, especially white women, have widely found that the excuse some men give for supporting Trump – claiming they are doing it for economic reasons – is a cover for what they are voting for Really about: controlling women and exercising power over them. I argue that Trump and his movement made this happen more and more clearly In different ways. Watts believes that women are fed up with the facade.

“This idea that men somehow care about the economy doesn’t seem true to me. I think it’s the behavior of patriarchy and I think women see it and want to burn it down.” Watts said.

The energy she’s talking about lines up with what I heard from women voters, Democratic pollsters, Harris-Walz campaign officials and others who measured women’s enthusiasm in the run-up to Election Day. Whether that means burning down patriarchy or building democracy, women seem willing to do the work at the ballot box.

Whether that means burning down patriarchy or building democracy, women seem willing to do the work at the ballot box.

I recently spoke with Gabrielle Wyatt, who founded The Highland Project, a nonpartisan organization helps empower black women leaders. In August, a non-profit organization published a survey on black voters – and, in short, that turned out to be the case zeroed and have an “extremely high” incentive to “show their political power.” More than 80% of survey participants said they were “very motivated” to vote, and 94% said fighting racism and discrimination were the most important issues this election cycle.

It may have something this comes amid recent reports that black women – a key Democratic voting bloc – are helping to boost early voter numbers in key swing states Georgia AND Pennsylvania. Wyatt told me that black women who prioritize fighting discrimination does not mean that they do not 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 because the idea aligns with Harris’ message about tying women’s economic well-being to the fight against misogyny. I wrote about the vice president clever explanation of this when she appeared on the “Call Her Daddy” podcast. Wyatt explained why the message seems to resonate:

It’s important to start pulling together some of these seemingly isolated issues in our research to say that when we’re in a system where 94% of Black women say their primary concern is racism and discrimination, when they say that “ If we are concerned about the rise of white nationalism when they say the Black maternal health crisis is real and the mental health crisis is real, we need to ask ourselves: Are we creating an economy that focuses on the well-being of Black mothers? Black women? Are we creating a democracy that focuses on the well-being of Black women, or are we creating something else?

Wyatt said candidates who connect these issues reflect the holistic ideas of safety for many Black women, which include their economic stability, the safety of their communities and their ability to make their own health choices. Harris has been referencing this message in her outreach to women throughout the campaign, and it at least appears to be bearing some fruit.

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