Republican candidates are struggling to connect with women and independent voters, conservative activist Heather Higgins said during the latest episode of “Pod Force One.”
Higgins, the CEO of Independent Women’s Voice, said the GOP could improve its outreach by studying how President Trump and former President Ronald Reagan communicated with women and swing voters.
“Women are, from the data I’ve seen, 53%, sometimes they even say 54% of the electorate,” Higgins told “Pod Force One” host Miranda Devine.
Women also vote at rates roughly 10 percentage points higher than men, Higgins said, making them an especially important voting bloc. Yet Republican messaging often fails to reflect that reality, she argued.
Higgins said many women resist being instructed about what they should believe. By contrast, she argued, a typical Republican advertisement can come across as overly forceful, delivering its conclusion “with a sledgehammer.”
“That does not work with women, but that’s how the GOP tends to talk,” she said.
The longtime conservative activist and businesswoman emphasized that this concern extends beyond women.
Independent men, too, often dislike being told what to think, according to Higgins. Candidates need to find more effective ways to present their case while allowing voters to reach their own conclusions, she said.
Higgins made her comments as Republican Ohio gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy faces backlash over an ad featuring Donna Arthur, the long-estranged mother of his opponent, Amy Acton. In the spot, Arthur calls her daughter a “liar” and urges Ohio voters to reject her.
Acton has said that her mother’s husband sexually abused her as a child and that Arthur stood by the man she identifies as her alleged abuser.
The advertisement drew condemnation from both Republicans and Democrats. Acton’s brother accused Ramaswamy of exploiting “the sexual abuse Amy endured at twelve years old from our birth mother’s husband” as a campaign issue.
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Still, Higgins said Republicans are not the only party potentially losing support ahead of the Nov. 3 midterm election.
“What’s interesting this cycle is that also the left hasn’t really been focused on women as a women’s issue type thing either,” Higgins said. She suggested that Democrats may have struggled to offer a clear set of women-focused issues amid debates over how the term “woman” is defined.
“So, there’s been a sort of absence on both sides,” she said.
Higgins said women often turn their attention to politics later in life, particularly when an issue becomes urgent or directly affects them.
She also argued that women generally respond less favorably to fear-driven campaign messages.
Rather than emphasizing alarmist claims or labeling opponents as socialists, Higgins said, candidates should explain who may be harmed, whether a policy is fair, and how it could benefit or hurt voters, their families and the people they care about. That framework, she told Devine, should guide how political arguments are presented.
Higgins also pointed to Trump’s use of highly emotional language—including telling voters that he loves them—as a tactic other Republicans could adopt.
“How many Republican politicians have you ever heard say they love you? Right? It just doesn’t happen,” she said. Higgins argued that Trump and Reagan connected more effectively than many Republicans because both began their political lives as Democrats.
“They understand the power of empathy. They understand the power of story. They understand the power of narrative and the power of connection, which is largely missing from the policy geek or lawyer or business guy who, because of facts and data, has gotten into Republican politics.”
Higgins continued, “It’s not that they don’t care. It’s just not part of their pattern to express it. He expresses it all the time.”