Dr. Lindsey Meeks
Associate Professor in the Department of Communication at the University of Oklahoma. She examines how gender, race, and partisanship intersect and affect candidate communication, especially social media strategies, as well as electoral news coverage. Her work has appeared in journals such as the Journal of Communication, Communication Research, Presidential Studies Quarterly, Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, and Politics & Gender.
Twitter: @L_Meeks
E-mail: lmeeks@ou.edu
U.S. Election 2024
12. The campaigns’ pandemic memory hole (Prof Michael Serazio)
13. America’s kingdom of contempt (Prof Barry Richards)
14. Americanism, not globalism 2.0: Donald Trump and America’s role in the world (Prof Jason A. Edwards)
15. The politics of uncertainty: Mediated campaign narratives about Russia’s war on Ukraine (Dr Tetyana Lokot)
16. The U.S. elections and the future of European security: Continuity or disruption? (Dr Garret Martin)
17. Trump’s victory brings us closer to the new world disorder (Prof Roman Gerodimos)
18. Abortion: Less important to voters than anticipated (Dr Zoë Brigley Thompson)
19. Roe your vote? (Dr Lindsey Meeks)
20. Gender panics, far-right radicalization, and the effectiveness of anti-trans political ads (Dr Thomas J. Billard)
21. U.S. politics and planetary crisis in 2024 (Dr Reed Kurtz)
22. Trump and Musk for all mankind (Prof Einar Thorsen)
23. Guns and the 2024 election (Prof Robert J. Spitzer)
24. Echoes of Trump: Potential shifts in Congress’s communication culture (Dr Annelise Russell)
Reproductive health issues hold a persistent place in modern American politics, but their presence was palpable in the 2024 elections. The 2024 election was the first presidential election after the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization (2022) ruling overturned Roe v. Wade (1973). A year after the ruling, anti-abortion activists said, “the battle is really engaged” because Hobbs “fragmented the cause across 50 states.” Democrats were banking on abortion being a big motivator for voters for 2024. Polling confirmed that voters were engaged, with 1 in 8 voters saying abortion was the most important issue in their vote. Given the stakes, presidential tickets’ messaging on the issue was crucial.
When President Joe Biden was the nominee, some fellow Democrats said his messaging was too weak. Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer said, “I think people want to know that this is a president that is fighting,” urging Biden to use more “blunt language.” The Biden ticket delegated such language to Vice President Kamala Harris: “For more aggressive talk about abortion and how the ripple effects of the decision are affecting maternal health, there’s Harris.” My analysis of Harris’s tweets leading up to the 2022 midterms and the 2023 State of the Union address supported this claim. Reproductive issues were Harris’s third-most tweeted about issue overall—coming in behind healthcare and economy—and she was especially focused on the issue before the midterms. When Harris tweeted about reproductive issues, it was often as an attack against Republicans, labeling them as “extremists,” such as this tweet from October 2022: “Extremist Republicans are calling for an abortion ban nationwide. They believe the government—not women—should make decisions about their own bodies. We do not. We trust the women of America.” Such rhetoric was coupled with other bold moves, such as Harris being the first president or VP to tour a Planned Parenthood health center as part of her Fight for Reproductive Freedoms Tour.
As VP, Harris’s position was clear, and when she became the nominee, she did not falter. In her DNC speech, Harris laid the blame squarely on Donald Trump: “Trump handpicked members of the United States Supreme Court to take away reproductive freedom…And understand, he is not done. As a part of his agenda, he and his allies would limit access to birth control, ban medication abortion, and enact a nationwide abortion ban, with or without Congress.” She then goes back to her framing as VP when she says, “Why exactly is it that they don’t trust women? Well, we trust women,” and concluded with, “when Congress passes a bill to restore reproductive freedom, as president of the United States, I will proudly sign it into law.” Throughout, she frames the issue as a fundamental freedom, aligning with reproductive activists and organizations, and echoes her campaign theme of “vote for freedom.” Harris reiterated much of this framing in the September presidential debate, advocating for “the freedom to make decisions about one’s own body.”
Trump’s messaging on reproductive issues was decidedly less clear. Trump and VP nominee JD Vance did not mention abortion once in their RNC speeches. At the September debate, moderator Linsey Davis recounted Trump’s oscillating stance on abortion. Trump claimed he “did something that nobody thought was possible” with the Hobbs ruling, bringing the focus back to him as the hero. He also stated he is not in favor of an abortion ban “because we’ve gotten what everybody wanted…[for] it to be brought back into the states.” When asked if he would sign a ban because “Vance has said that you would veto if it did come to your desk,” Trump responded that he “didn’t discuss it with JD.” Combined, these instances signal dismissiveness: For Trump, the issue is settled, so he does not need to discuss it at the RNC or even with Vance.
This dismissive tone took a different track weeks after the debate when Trump said at a rally: “You will no longer be abandoned, lonely or scared…You will be protected, and I will be your protector…You will no longer be thinking about abortion.” Trump doubled down weeks later, saying he’d protect women, “whether the women like it or not.” According to Josh Marshall, it was an “assertion of power…an expression of dominance,” which stems from how US culture, according to Julia Wood, “instructs men to gain and exercise power over others and, consequently, to feel proud when they do so.”
Harris framed the issue as a fundamental, personal freedom. She wanted to protect individual freedoms. Trump took that personal agency away and located power within himself. He dismissed women’s ability to even think about abortion because he would protect them, but not their rights or freedoms.
According to 2024 exit polls of key states, when asked which of five issues mattered most in their vote for president, 76% of those who said abortion voted for Harris and 24% for Trump. However, only 14% of voters said abortion mattered most. While its seems some Americans did “Roe their vote” toward Harris, it was not enough to elect her.