“This pandemic has made us really modify how we live, how we move, how we operate as families. We are still paying attention [to politics], but life has shifted for all of us.”
— Kendra Brown, Maryland
By Errin Haines, The 19th
At their last book club meeting, on February 28, the day before the South Carolina Democratic primary, Winnie Pou Lau and her friends spent three hours talking politics, not about the month’s literary pick.
“We were talking about [Sen. Elizabeth] Warren’s chances versus [Sen. Bernie] Sanders,” Lau recalled. “Who’s going to be the running mate, how do we beat [President Donald] Trump no matter what candidate we have.”
Three weeks later, the women gathered again, this time on their screens from home for a virtual hangout happy hour. There was no talk of politics — only of coronavirus, as the group checked in with each other on their mental health, how they were managing home and work, and who had access to toilet paper.
“We were more focused on each other,” Lau, a wife and mother living in Oakland and working in human resources. “There was no talk of the primary.”
“We were more focused on each other,” Winnie Pou Lau, a wife and mother living in Oakland and working in human resources. “There was no talk of the primary.”
A month ago, much of the country was transfixed on the nascent 2020 election before a global pandemic arrived, disrupting American life and the campaign trail. Many women who had been engaged in the primary cycle — watching the debates, furiously group-texting with friends, eager to cast their ballots — have little mental bandwidth for anything other than how the crisis is impacting their lives and communities, or are viewing politics through the lens of the coronavirus.
The shift has been particularly acute for women of color, the base of the Democratic Party and its most loyal and consistent voters.
Kendra Brown said she has been “very engaged” in the 2020 election, discussing it constantly with friends and family and as president of her sorority chapter.
“I feel like it’s our duty to pay attention and be informed,” when it comes to politics, said Brown, who lives in Bowie, Maryland, and works in corporate public policy and has a four-year-old daughter. She acknowledged that the primaries are still ongoing, “but this pandemic has made us really modify how we live, how we move, how we operate as families. We are still paying attention [to politics], but life has shifted for all of us.”
The primary calendar has become a moving target as state elections officials have postponed some contests due to social distancing recommendations and an abundance of caution. The remaining Democratic candidates, former Vice President Joe Biden and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, have taken their respective campaigns nearly completely digital. Earlier this month, the two men debated at a social distance, in a cable news studio without an audience, as fears around coronavirus were still emerging.
A recent poll by the Kaiser Family Foundation revealed a “worry gap” between men and women around the coronavirus pandemic. as infections increase across the nation and the economy reels from the national shutdown of activities.
According to the poll, nearly seven in 10 women compared to 56 percent of men are worried that they or someone in their family will get sick from coronavirus, and half of women worry about losing income due to a workplace closure or reduced hours, compared to 42 percent of men. More women and men with children are worried about loss of income or being exposed to coronavirus because they can’t stay home than women and men without children.
“From the moment you wake up until you go to sleep, you’re thinking about everything through that lens,” said pediatric psychiatrist Aeva Gaymon Doomes, who lives in Washington, D.C., with her husband and two children.
“The topics have shifted to how are we going to have an election in the middle of a pandemic?”
Earlier this year, Doomes was chatting with girlfriends about the power of black women at the ballot, and lamenting the exit of California Sen. Kamala Harris, the lone black woman, from the 2020 field. Now, she’s more focused on the logistics of getting groceries and medical care if her family needs it.
“The frequency with which I’m talking about politics in terms of the issues has decreased,” she said. “The topics have shifted to how are we going to have an election in the middle of a pandemic?”
Jennifer Gregory said it feels like a lifetime ago that she cast her ballot for Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, still hopeful that a woman could win the nomination and become president. On Thursday, she was down to her last loaf of bread, contemplating risking contamination by going out to get more.
“Group chats with my girlfriends used to be about campaigns and policy and what that means for America,” she said. “Our last chat was, ‘Here’s how I’m using chicken breasts to make dinner.”
When she thinks about the election now, Gregory said she’s looking to hear from candidates about how they would respond not to imaginary scenarios, but to the real-life crisis the country is living through.
“It’s not hypothetical anymore,” she said. “It’s ‘What would you do? What are you doing?’”
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