was Donald Trump’s attack on diversity and inclusion work a factor in his winning the US presidential election?
Rory Stewart and Alastair Campbell have a podcast, “Leading” where they interview political figures. Their 12 May 2025 interview was with Democrat Congressman Jim Hines: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pgjcCNjVElQ
Mr Hines was asked for his thoughts on why his party lost the November 2024 US presidential election. One thing he said was:
“We became self-righteous around social issues. We became immensely annoying around things like pronouns. We opened the door to Donald Trump […] this is controversial stuff, but the ad. that had the impact on the election: “she is for ‘they/them’, he is for you”. We opened the door to that by being annoying, priggish, and self-righteous.”
The reference to “they/them” is explained in this WikiHow article:
https://www.wikihow.com/They-Them-Meaning
“They/them/theirs pronouns typically refer to a singular person who doesn’t use gendered pronouns like she/her/hers or he/him/his for themself.
[…] If you’re trying to find out what pronouns a person uses, don’t be afraid to ask them upfront. […] Example: “I’m David, and I use he/him pronouns. What pronouns do you use?””
The Trump campaign advertisement is explained in this Wikipedia article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kamala_is_for_they/them
“”Kamala is for they/them, President Trump is for you” was a political advertisement commissioned by U.S. Republican party nominee Donald Trump’s campaign to attack Kamala Harris during the 2024 United States presidential election. The ad features excerpts from an interview that Harris gave to National Center for Transgender Equality Action Fund’s Mara Keisling, where Harris supported tax-funded gender-affirming surgery for prisoners. The ad’s kicker was “Kamala is for they/them, President Trump is for you.”
The ads, which had several different variations, aired more than 30,000 times in every swing state.”
It is still possible to order a t-shirt with the campaign slogan:
It seems likely that the hard work of the Democrats to be fully inclusive, particularly to support those who have been previously excluded, had an unintended side-effect of leaving some traditional voters feeling overlooked. The Trump campaign took advantage of that feeling.
It is also interesting that the slogan uses Kamela Harris’s first name and Donald Trump’s surname. Perhaps the campaigners thought there would be some advantage where “Kamela” sounds a bit ‘foreign’ and “Trump” sounds strong and traditional?
Adrian Vincent.
May 2025