“Vote. Vote. Vote. Vote. Vote.” Women's March holds mix of smaller in-person, virtual events amid pandemic and widening political gender gap
Mary O’Connor didn’t mind the chilly morning air, the blustery wind or even the occasional drizzle as she joined about 20 others to rally on a suburban corner as part of the Women’s March movement.
“What I tell people is: Democracy requires bravery,” O’Connor said, amid a cacophony of horns, shouts of encouragement and occasional jeers from drivers. “Paul Revere wasn’t afraid.”
The small rally at a busy Kane County corner joined a mix of smaller in-person and virtual events Saturday across the country, tailored to the realities of a pandemic and desire to draw maximum engagement in a divisive election. That included Women’s March Chicago holding a “Zoom to the Polls” Facebook Live event, with more than three-dozen speakers from Chicago’s mayor to neighborhood activists.
The consistent theme of speakers: Make a plan to vote, either by mail, early voting or on Election Day. Then make sure others vote too.
“Vote, vote, vote, vote, vote,” said Fawzia Mirza, who helped emcee the Women’s March Chicago event. “Honestly, this is the best four-letter word there ever was.”
While not ostensibly a rally for Democrats, the Get-Out-The-Vote message was interspersed with pitches for progressive policy ideas and pleas to support Democratic Party candidates up and down the ballot.
And those pleas come amid a widening gender gap in voting. During the 2016 cycle, Donald Trump won with the support of 52 percent of men and just 41 percent of women – an 11 percentage-point gap, the widest it had been in 20 years, according to the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University.
This year, various polls suggest that gap may be just as wide, albeit with women preferring the Democratic choice even more than the last election cycle.
A Washington Post/ ABC News poll from Oct. 6 to 9 gave Democrat Joe Biden an overall edge of 54%-42% among likely voters, with a 4% margin of error. While that poll showed the race tied among men, women supported Biden 59%-36%, which pollsters described as the widest margin among women favoring a candidate in more than 40 years of such polling.
Then again, Saturday’s speakers were careful to note what happened in 2016, when Democratic contender Hillary Clinton watched a comfortable poll lead dissipate, and Trump eke out a victory. The speakers blamed some voters’ complacency.
“You know the three most important things are turnout, turnout and more turnout,” said U.S. Rep. Robin Kelly, D-Matteson.
Added Illinois Comptroller Susana Mendoza: “Polls mean nothing. What matters is the final tally on election day.”
Mendoza spoke from her home, like most speakers. Some spoke from their offices. One spoke from her car. The group also held an outdoor viewing party at Phalanx Family Services in Chicago’s Roseland neighborhood, where sweatshirts and voting information were handed out.
Other events were held in Chicago and across the suburbs, including one that aimed to line miles of west suburban Randall Road with groups in masks holding mini-rallies.
That included the corner that drew O’Connor and others, to North Avenue and Randall Road, in the shadow of a Pep Boys Auto store.
Among the group was Ursala Klicker, of Batavia. She held up a poster board dotted with pictures of flowers and the phrase: Vote For Kindness. On the other side was the phrase: We Will Rise.
“I just hate … everybody fighting, We can’t fix the problems we have if we are so divided,” Klicker said.
Another, Terri Jacobsenof St. Charles, offered a more blunt reason for being there: “Trump freaks us out.”
For O’Connor, it’s just a continuation of advocacy that began when she helped form a 2017 group spurred by the Women’s March movement, called We Can Lead Change – Fox Valley. She echoed others' calls to push the message through the election and beyond.
“We’ve got to grind it. We’ve got to grind it to the end,” she said. “Nothing can be taken for granted, which is why we’re out here in the cold and the rain.”
jmahr@chicagotribune.com
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