With Halloween falling just five days before the most hotly contested presidential race in living memory, it’s no wonder that politically themed costumes are proving popular.
But there’s one outfit flying off the party store shelves that may seem a little unlikely.
Because while glamor cat Barbie proved to be the most popular Halloween costume last year, partygoers can expect a visit from a very different character on Thursday – when ‘The Childless Cat Lady’ knocks on the front door.
The outfits are, of course, a joking reference to the words of JD Vance, the Republican candidate for vice president who outraged millions when he claimed in 2021 that the Democratic Party is run by “a bunch of childless cat ladies who are miserable in their lives.” their own lives… and want to make the rest of the country miserable too.’
“Look at Kamala Harris,” he continued. “The Democrats’ entire future is controlled by people without children.”
Glamor cat Barbie was the most popular Halloween costume last year, but partygoers can expect a visit from a very different character on Thursday – when ‘The Childless Cat Lady’ makes an appearance. (Image: Costume sold by Target for $55.99).
It’s a reference to the words of JD Vance, who stated that the Democratic Party is led by “a bunch of childless cat ladies who are miserable in their own lives… and so they want to make the rest of the country miserable too.”
He certainly understood the spirit of the times. Cat ladies have spawned an explosion of memes on social media and it’s no coincidence that New York’s largest Halloween parade shouts “Meow!” as this year’s theme.
“We can’t leave crazy cat lady costumes on the shelves,” said an employee at Spirit Halloween in Los Angeles, which has pop-up shops across the country.
“It’s by far our biggest seller and it’s the same across our stores. Nothing comes close, not even Taylor Swift.”
Cat lady costumes and t-shirts are also tipped as the number one bestseller for online retail giants like Amazon and Etsy.
Not that everyone will see the funny side between now and the November 5 election.
For Donald Trump and JD Vance, his Yale-educated running mate, the childless cat ladies – and the female rage they inspired – could prove dangerously creepy.
That’s certainly what Kamala Harris is hoping for as she desperately woos older female voters in the final days of a campaign that is now neck and neck in the national polls.
Because while Harris’ overwhelming support among young women and women of color has hardly wavered since she replaced Joe Biden on the Democratic ticket this summer, there is a segment of voters that still appears to be in play: Republican women over 50 might may even prove critical. at this late stage.
As one major Democratic donor told me, “Every vote counts we discovered that there are a whole slew of Republican women, over 50, geographically spread across the country and from all walks of life, who could change their minds.
“These are lifelong Republicans who held their noses and voted for Trump last time. But this time we hear from our grassroots researchers that these women are open to change. They don’t like Trump’s vulgarity and lies.”
They are also not happy with his position on abortion.
By encouraging the Supreme Court to strike down Roe v Wade — the federal guarantee of abortion rights — Trump had already galvanized a powerful segment of the female vote against him.
This TikToker is one of thousands planning to become a ‘Childless Cat Lady’ this Halloween.
One party store said “cat lady” costumes are flying off the shelves: “Nothing even comes close, not even Taylor Swift.”
“Abortion is a big problem,” the Democratic donor confirmed. “And while many Republican women are pro-life, they also say they believe women should have autonomy over their own bodies.
‘The idea of telling women what they can and cannot do with their own bodies disgusts them. The comment about the childless cat lady enraged all women, but especially Republican women of a certain age, because it was such a stupid and insulting thing to say. And that particular demographic could make a difference in such a tight race.”
These women are so important that Harris spent Monday this week in the crucial battleground states of Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin, where he joined former Congresswoman Liz Cheney in making a direct appeal to Republican women.
At a town hall meeting in Michigan, Republican Cheney, whose father Dick Cheney was vice president to George W. Bush, described the election as “a choice between good and evil.”
Cheney said, “I have a lot of Republicans telling me, ‘I can’t be public.’ They worry about a whole range of things, including violence, but they will do the right thing. “I would tell them (Republican women) that you can vote your conscience and never have to say a word to anyone.”
Canvasser Anne Brown, 54, is in the crucial Pennsylvania suburb of Chester County, where Harris and Cheney appeared Monday night.
She said, “You see yard signs with Kamala’s name spelled out in cat motifs. I think for many of these women it comes down to basic decency and wanting to protect the Constitution. Trump is an existential threat to democracy and that’s why I think you’ll see Republican men and women voting for Kamala, but especially women. Chester County has voted Republican for 150 years. But when I talk to my Republican friends, they say they are voting for Kamala.”
According to the latest New York Times/Siena College poll, Kamala wins a whopping four percent of voters registered as Republicans.
Melanie Barton-Gauss, a retired teacher from Florida, is a member of Republican Voters Against Trump.
“I grew up pro-life, but I am very firm in my position that my views on abortion are my personal views,” she said. ‘No one has the right to impose our personal religious views on anyone else. It was never the intention of our country’s founders for this country to become a theocracy.’
Referring to Vance’s comment about “childless cat ladies,” she added, “What does he think?” That women are supposed to be barefoot and pregnant? That our entire lives are nothing more than as bearers and caregivers of children? I didn’t go to college to be relegated solely to that role.”
Will older women turn on Trump and Vance? Kamala Harris spent Monday in the crucial battleground states of Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin and, together with former Republican congresswoman Liz Cheney, launched a direct appeal to Republican women (photo).
Trump, meanwhile, can look to his own surge in male voters in what has become one of the most starkly gendered elections of all time.
According to a Wall Street Journal poll, Harris has a huge lead of about 13 percentage points among women, but the same survey shows Trump with a significant 10-point lead among men.
Trump is even thought to be eating into the Democrat’s traditional support of black and Latino men, which in itself could tip the election in his favor.
Now, the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) has launched a campaign titled “She’s the Difference: Women voters 50+.”
AARP Vice President Nancy LeaMond said, “We became very interested in older women voters when no one else was focusing on them.
“There are 63 million female voters over the age of 50 and 97 percent of them say they will vote.”
The AARP says its own polling over the past two weeks has shown a clear shift among women over 50 — and they are moving toward Democrats.
“We know that women over 50 are very plugged in,” says AARP pollster Kristen Soltis Anderson.
“They’re focused on the news, they’re educated, they’re motivated, they’re ready to participate.”
A lifelong Republican friend from Texas who asked not to be identified — like many I spoke to because, she explained, “I would be ostracized by my church, my community and my family” — is among those who put Trump in the have failed. .
“I voted for Trump in 2016 and 2020,” she said, “but this time I will secretly vote for Kamala and never tell my husband.”
My friend was already shocked by Trump’s infamous 2016 comments, caught on an Access Hollywood “hot mic,” that he was so famous he could “grab women by the pussy.”
Now, after the abortion legislation and JD Vance’s comments, she’s finally had enough.
“It would be a little ironic,” she suggested, “if the guy who said that ends up getting defeated by a bunch of Republican cat ladies.”