Democrats have reportedly given up on accusing Republicans of waging a so-called “war on women.”
National Journal reported that Democrats in 2014 have “now sworn off its catch phrase, dropping it almost completely from a campaign strategy that” still tries to focus on women’s issues.
“[Saying] ‘Republicans are waging a war on women’ actually doesn’t test very well,” Celinda Lake, a top Democrat pollster, told National Journal. “Women find it divisive, political–they don’t like it.”
In 2012, the President Barack Obama hammered Mitt Romney and Republicans with the “war on women” campaign en route another term in the White House. Though Democrats in Kentucky, New Hampshire, and North Carolina will reportedly still play up women’s issues in their Senate races this year, they will shy away from the catchphrase. During this cycle, Republican female candidates have been more effective calling Democrats out on the “war on women” narrative. A former candidate, Carly Fiorina, even started a PAC to counter the narrative.
Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin has also been accusing the Obama administration of hypocrisy in the “war on women” campaign, especially after revelations in Hillary Clinton’s book that Obama officials wanted Clinton to smear Palin in 2008.