With Halloween falling just five days before the closest presidential race in living memory, it’s no surprise that politically themed costumes are becoming popular.
But there’s one outfit flying off party store shelves that may seem a little unlikely.
Because while the glamorous Barbie turned out to be last year’s most popular Halloween costume, partygoers can expect a visit from a very different character on Thursday, when ‘The Childless Cat Lady’ comes knocking major.
The outfits are, of course, a joking reference to the words of JD Vance, the Republican vice presidential candidate 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 own lives…so they want to make the rest of the country miserable too.’
“Look at Kamala Harris,” he continued. “The Democrats’ entire future is controlled by childless people.”
The glamorous Barbie was last year’s most popular Halloween costume, but partygoers can expect a visit from a very different character on Thursday, when ‘The Childless Cat Lady’ makes an appearance. (Pictured: costume sold by Target for $55.99.)
It’s a reference to the words of JD Vance, who claimed that the Democratic Party is run by “a bunch of childless cat ladies who are miserable in their own lives…so they want to make the rest of the country miserable too.”
It certainly captured 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 has ‘Meow!’ as this year’s theme.
“We can’t keep crazy cat costumes on the shelves,” said a worker at Spirit Halloween in Los Angeles, which has pop-up stores across the country.
‘It is by far our biggest seller and it is the same in our stores around the world. Nothing comes close, not even Taylor Swift.
Cat Lady costumes and t-shirts are also expected to be number one bestsellers for online retail giants like Amazon and Etsy.
Not that everyone will see the funny side between now and the Nov. 5 election.
In fact, for Donald Trump and JD Vance, his Yale-educated running mate, childless cat ladies – and the female fury they provoked – could be dangerously creepy.
That’s certainly what Kamala Harris is hoping for as she desperately courts older voters in the final days of a campaign that is now very close in national polls.
Because while Harris’ overwhelming support among young women and women of color has barely wavered since she replaced Joe Biden on the Democratic ticket in the summer, there is one sector of voters that appears to still be in play: Republican women over 50 could be critical even at this last stage.
As one major Democratic donor told me: “Every vote counts and We have discovered that there is a group of Republican women, over 50, geographically across the country and from all walks of life, who could change their minds.
‘These are lifelong Republicans who held their noses last time and voted for Trump. But this time we heard from our grassroots pollsters that these women are open to change. “They don’t like Trump’s vulgarity and lies.”
They also don’t like his stance on abortion.
By encouraging the Supreme Court to overturn Roe v Wade – the federal guarantee of abortion rights – Trump had already galvanized a powerful sector of the female vote against him.
This TikToker is among thousands planning to become a ‘Childless Cat Lady’ this Halloween.
One party store said ‘cat lady’ costumes are flying off the shelves: ‘Nothing comes close, not even Taylor Swift.’
“Abortion is a big problem,” confirmed the Democratic donor. ‘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 is repugnant to them. The childless cat lady’s comment infuriated all the women, but particularly the Republican women of a certain age, because it was so stupid and insulting. And that specific demographic could very well make the difference in such a close race.”
So important are these women that Harris spent Monday of this week in the crucial states of Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin issuing a direct appeal to Republican women alongside former Congresswoman Liz Cheney.
During a town hall meeting in Michigan, Republican Cheney – whose father, Dick Cheney, was George W. Bush’s vice president – framed the election as “a choice between good and evil.”
Cheney said: “There are a lot of Republicans who tell me, ‘I can’t be public.'” They worry about a wide range of things, including violence, but they will do the right thing. “I would tell (Republican women) that they can vote their conscience and never have to say a word to anyone.”
Pollster Anne Brown, 54, is in the crucial Pennsylvania suburb of Chester County, where Harris and Cheney appeared Monday night.
She said: ‘You see signs in the garden where Kamala’s name is written in cat motifs. I think for many of these women it comes down to basic decency and a desire to protect the Constitution. Trump is an existential threat to democracy and that is why I think we will see Republican men and women voting for Kamala, but especially women. Chester County voted Republican for 150 years. But when I talk to my Republican friends, they tell me they will vote for Kamala.”
In the latest New York Times/Siena College poll, Kamala leads as many as four percent of registered Republican voters.
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 stance that my views on abortion are my personal views,” she said. ‘No one has any right to impose our personal religious views on another person. The founders of our nation never intended for this country to be 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 whole life is nothing more than having children and taking care of them.” ?I didn’t go to university to be relegated solely to that role.
Will older women turn against Trump and Vance? Kamala Harris spent Monday in the crucial states of Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin making a direct appeal to Republican women alongside former Republican congresswoman Liz Cheney (pictured).
Meanwhile, Trump can look forward to his own surge of male voters in what has become one of the most starkly sexist elections of all time.
Harris has a huge lead of about 13 percentage points among women according to a Wall Street Journal poll, but the same research shows Trump has a substantial 10-point lead among men.
In fact, Trump is believed to be eating away at the Democrat’s traditional support among black and Latino men, which 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 Age 50+.”
AARP Vice President Nancy LeaMond said, ‘We became very interested in older women voters when no one else was focused on them.
“There are 63 million women voters over the age of 50 and 97 percent of them say they are going to vote.”
The AARP says its own polls have shown a clear shift among women over 50 in the past two weeks, and they are moving toward Democrats.
“We know that women over 50 are very connected,” said AARP pollster Kristen Soltis Anderson.
“They are focused on the news, they are educated, they are motivated and they are willing to participate.”
A lifelong Republican friend from Texas who did not want to be identified – like many I have spoken to because, she explained, “my church, my community and my family would ostracize me” – is one of those abandoning Trump. . .
“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 had already been shocked by Trump’s infamous 2016 comments, caught on a “hot mic” by Access Hollywood, that he was so famous he could “grab” women “by the pussy.”
Now, in the wake of abortion legislation and JD Vance’s comments, he’s finally had enough.
“It would be a little ironic,” he suggested, “if the man who said that ended up getting defeated by a bunch of Republican cat ladies.”
