As women outpace men in early turnout, Trump’s challenge to win over female voters comes into focus

(CNN) — When Alex Cooper, the popular podcaster behind “Call Her Daddy,” released her widely discussed interview with Democrat Kamala Harris last month, she revealed she had invited the vice president’s Republican opponent, Donald Trump, to appear on her show as well.

“If he also wants to have a meaningful and in-depth conversation about women’s rights in this country, then he is welcome on ‘Call Her Daddy’ anytime,” Cooper told her millions of listeners, most of them women.

Trump’s campaign had received an offer to join the show, according to sources close to the former president, but ultimately decided to pass. Instead, Trump doubled down on a strategy of speaking directly to America’s young men through appearances on right-leaning, male-dominated online shows. He will end his campaign Tuesday having largely avoided podcasts, YouTube channels and daytime TV shows tailored toward female audiences.

And if Trump’s third White House bid falls short, his approach to courting women – who narrowly outnumber men and are more reliable voters – may be among his campaign’s most scrutinized strategies. Trump advisers and allies had argued throughout the late summer and early fall that his appeal among men would make up for the lack of support from female voters, but in recent weeks the widening gender gap has caused alarm for some Republicans.

“We’ve seen a women problem for all Republicans, up and down the ballot,” one Trump-aligned GOP operative told CNN. “It starts at the top.”

Trump’s uncertainty about how to appeal to women has been evident even in the final days of his campaign, leading to public disagreements with his staff over his messaging. At a rally in Green Bay, Wisconsin, on Wednesday, he recounted advice from aides urging him to drop his repeated promise to be women’s “protector” because they saw it as inappropriate.

“‘Sir, please don’t say that,’” he said he was advised. “Why? I’m president. I want to protect the women of our country. Well, I’m going to do it, whether the women like it or not. I’m going to protect them,” Trump told the crowd.

The Harris campaign quickly seized on the remarks, pairing the clip with Trump’s anti-abortion statements in a video that amassed over 2.4 million views on X. Harris followed up by highlighting the comments during a brief and rare news conference and later at a rally in Reno, Nevada, where she said Trump “simply does not respect the freedom of women or the intelligence of women to make decisions about their own lives.”

Her campaign also criticized Trump for asserting Thursday that former presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. would work on “women’s health” in a second Trump administration.

Understanding the divide

Behind the scenes and on the phone with close allies, Trump will ask why women don’t like him, three sources familiar with the conversations said.

“He thinks women want someone who will keep them safe. Keep their children safe,” one of the sources said.

In North Carolina on Wednesday, Trump polled the women in his audience on whether they wanted him to protect them. He appeared pleased at the cheers he received.

But beyond his rallies, women do not appear to be responding to the former president’s attempts to reach them. The latest ABC News/Ipsos national poll showed Trump trailing Harris among likely female voters by 14-points – a margin that far outpaces his 6-point lead among men.

Adding to Trump’s challenges is a gender gap in early voting. In the seven most contested battleground states, women have cast 55% of ballots so far, while men account for 45%, according to Catalist, a Democratic-aligned data firm. This 10-point disparity representing nearly 1.4 million ballots, though slightly less than it was four years ago, nevertheless has Trump allies concerned.

“Early vote has been disproportionately female,” Charlie Kirk, president of Turning Point Action, a conservative group responsible for much of Trump’s ground strategy, posted on X. “If men stay at home, Kamala is president. It’s that simple.”

In a statement to CNN, Trump campaign spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said Harris “may be the first woman Vice President but she has implemented dangerously liberal policies that have left women worse off financially and far less safe than we were four years ago under President Trump.”

“Women deserve a President who will secure our nation’s borders, remove violent criminals from our neighborhoods, and build an economy that helps our families thrive – and that’s exactly what President Trump will do,” Leavitt said.

The right appeal

For a time, Trump’s campaign expected they could win women over on key policy issues, specifically the economy, crime and Trump’s vow to keep transgender women from competing in female sports. However, the race for women’s votes grew more complicated with Harris becoming the Democratic presidential nominee, energizing female voters and leaving Trump scrambling for a new approach.

Over the past two weeks, the campaign has hosted a women’s tour, featuring several top allies. These events will continue through the weekend with popular female Trump supporters, including Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders and former race car driver Danica Patrick. At a recent town hall on Fox News with an entirely female audience – an overt attempt to take on the concerns – Trump called himself the “father” of in vitro fertilization, an assertion that Democrats have roundly mocked.

Trump’s campaign and Republican supporters attempted to go on offense Thursday, capitalizing on remarks made by businessman Mark Cuban, a leading pro-Harris voice, who told ABC’s “The View” that the former president avoids “strong, intelligent women.” Top female Republican lawmakers and Trump’s female staff, including his campaign manager Susie Wiles, denounced the remarks on social media.

Trump has also relied on other White men to help reach female voters. Senior advisers have hoped for a boost from the endorsement from Kennedy, who has been stumping for Trump on the campaign trail and is expected be with the former president all day Friday. The hope was Kennedy could reach a subset of women, particularly health-conscious mothers who are distrustful of government and the medical industry. Women were more likely to support Kennedy than men, according to a recent Pew Research Center survey, though other polls haven’t shown a meaningful difference.

Trump’s challenges with female voters stretch back to his first term, when college-educated women began shifting away from him, driving Democratic gains in the House in the 2018 midterms. The Supreme Court’s reversal of Roe v. Wade in 2022, a decision Trump once celebrated, has only deepened women’s resistance to his platform. He has attempted to moderate his stance – taking credit for the court’s decision while distancing himself from the strict state abortion laws that followed that ruling – but polling hasn’t shown it to be effective. His selection of Ohio Sen. JD Vance, who once said abortion should be “illegal nationally,” as his running mate has only kept the issue front and center.

Trump’s inability to straddle the country’s deep divide proved unsustainable this summer. Forced to pick a side on a ballot measure to expand abortion access in his home state of Florida, Trump at first suggested he supported it. The blowback from the right was swift and severe. Leading women in the anti-abortion movement threatened to withhold their support from Trump and gave permission for others to do the same.

At the risk of losing women from within his base, Trump backtracked. He clarified that he intended to vote against the Florida amendment, effectively siding with the state’s existing six-week abortion ban. The episode provided Democrats new fire power for one of their most effective fundraising and mobilizing messages against the former president.

An opportunity for Harris

An appearance on “Call Her Daddy” might not have resolved Trump’s longstanding challenge with female voters. But his decision to avoid such platforms has left Harris with a prominent opening.

During her appearance on the podcast, she warned listeners about the potential rollback of rights under a second Trump term, saying, “The fight for reproductive freedom is, at its core, about the basic right any individual has to make decisions about their own body.”

Leavitt did not respond when asked why Trump didn’t accept the “Call Her Daddy” invite. Representatives for Cooper, the podcast host, did not respond to CNN’s request for comment.

Trump, meanwhile, has gone sharply in the other direction, remaining confined to a similar universe of online jokesters and bro-culture influencers: the Canadian pranksters known as the Nelk Boys, comedians Theo Vonn and Andrew Schulz, wrestler Mark Calaway aka The Undertaker, YouTube star-turned-boxer Logan Paul, LIV golfer Bryson DeChambeau, former NFL stars Will Compton and Taylor Lewan and video game streamer Adin Ross.

The capstone appearance of his podcast tour came in October when Trump sat down for a three-hour interview with comedian and actor Joe Rogan, host of one of the most popular shows on the internet.

The appearance delivered the desired result for Trump’s campaign – an extended performance in front of Rogan’s massive audience – and Harris has faced pressure to also join Rogan’s Austin-based show. Rogan recently divulged that his team had discussed the idea with the Harris campaign, but they hadn’t come to terms on the length or where to record it.

But Trump has resisted opportunities to branch out. He hasn’t also appeared on the campaign trail with his GOP primary rival, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, who captured a notable share of female Republican voters through the winter and spring. Trump’s campaign was in talks with Haley’s team earlier this month to deploy her with the GOP nominee on the trail, but a Trump adviser told CNN it’s unclear if any such joint appearance will ultimately come together before Election Day.

Haley told Fox News this week that she hasn’t spoken to Trump since June but remained willing to engage.

Instead, Trump’s campaign once again recommitted to his approach with a male-dominated rally at Madison Square Garden that drew criticisms for misogynistic attacks by speakers on the former president’s past and present female opponents.

“This is not a time for them to get overly masculine with this bromance thing that they’ve got going,” Haley said in response to the New York City rally. “Fifty-three percent of the electorate are women. Women will vote. They care about how they are being talked to and they care about the issues. This is a time of discipline, and this is the time of addition.”