The term annoys them as much as the price of cornflakes at the local Walmart. “Soccer moms”: “soccer moms”, these mothers who only serve to drop off and then pick up children on the sports fields on Sundays. Flagship category of the American presidential elections, more popular than any other segment of the electorate, the “suburban woman” fascinates experts who are torn about her: what does she want, behind the tinted windows of her hybrid SUV? , makes and breaks careers at the White House?
We court her. We promise her security for her family, we reassure her about abortion, we promise that her wallet will allow her to have enough dollars saved for a Disney vacation. If the big cities of the country traditionally vote Democratic, if the rural areas prefer the Republicans, the immense peripheries, which no longer belong to the countryside and are not yet completely urbanized, have a heart that is unsteady. However, this pendulum swings more in favor of the Democrats.
The suburban woman, qualified, rather well-off, would have developed an allergy to Donald Trump
The suburban woman, qualified, rather well-off, would have developed an allergy to Donald Trump. Gwinnett County, northeast of the Atlanta metropolitan area, the capital and main city of Georgia, has become the thermometer of the expectations of this electorate so sought after and so heavily flirted with. As if this territory alone embodied the suburban woman. Until the caricature. In the living rooms of its charming pavilions with their wooden and pink brick facades, the destiny of the world is almost at stake.
Alone behind her small Republican Party office located in a small commercial area of Lawrenceville, the county capital, Carol Field has just done a mailing session and is putting away chairs and primary party pennants which, of course, come from dedicate Trump. At 84 years old (she looks ten years younger), this former nurse is responsible for the volunteers of the Grand Old Party in these lands whose history and geography she knows like the back of her hand.
The idea that the ex-president, with his sometimes outrageous language (and in particular his famous “grab them by the ch…”remarks recorded without his knowledge), could discourage moderate women amusing him: “I am not looking for a husband but a presidentshe says. This is the South. We look at the balance sheets. Women in the North look more at men. But Trump is not a classic politician. It should not be considered that way. And then I can name you at least fifty other politicians who have behaved badly with women. Far more incorrectly than Trump. » And to start by mentioning Bill Clinton, “yet someone from the South, like us”. Before moving on to Joe Biden who “sniff women… This guy scares the shit out of me and it has nothing to do with the fact that he’s a Democrat. I wouldn’t want to be alone in a room with him. I am also Catholic and he is not a good Catholic”.
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Georgia counts among its illustrious statesmen a former Democratic president, Jimmy Carter, still alive at 99 years old. This Baptist (and therefore evangelical) from Plains (200 kilometers south of Atlanta) would today almost appear as a “moderate” among the Republicans. “I never thought we could have worse than Carter as president”laments Carol Field, who remembers a Democratic party which did not call Christians “psychopaths” and had to “respect for blue-collar workers… Truman must be rolling over in his grave”.
Carol Field, who oversees around fifty volunteers, “including 80% women”, is almost a vestige of this once solidly Republican county, when it was more rural. With its million inhabitants, Gwinnett is nothing more than an outgrowth of the Atlanta metropolitan area crossed by dozens of highway interchanges used by “commuters” subscribed to express toll lanes to reach their work from their suburban house. And above all, Gwinnett has “diversified”. This is the word from both camps to describe the change in ethnic demographics.
In 2000, white people made up 70% of the population. Twenty years later, this figure has fallen to 32%. The share of blacks and Asians has continued to grow as the number of residents has doubled during this period. Affordable rents, tolerable delinquency figures, service employment pool: Gwinnett is the city in the country! The construction sites for the 1996 Olympic Games attracted Latinos and blacks who ultimately settled there, taking advantage of whites reselling their property for places ever further from Atlanta. Since the mid-1960s, people have voted Republican (with the exception of the Jimmy Carter era). Hillary Clinton was the first Democrat to win (by a handful of votes) in 2016. An earthquake in this “Swing State”.
“You can’t talk to us about ‘social justice’ while our children are easy targets for gang violence”
Ilene Johnson, Democratic official in the county, 67, refuses these photos. “There are also women who are against contraception, who like guys like Trump, because they find him strong…” But nuance right away: “In this county, women want security, money to pay the rent, but they don’t want a macho man either. » And makes this strange parallel which says a lot about the effects of extreme political polarization in the United States: “They do not accept the nonsense of the radical left and nor those of Trump. Elected officials like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez do not help us reassure them. »
For the vice-president of the local Republican Party, Laurie McClain, there is no doubt that the women of Gwinnett don’t care about social justice, especially since Biden is president: “They think about the safety and well-being of their children and their families. This includes safe neighborhoods, good school systems, and affordable groceries. You can’t talk to us about “social justice” while our children are easy targets for gang violence at their bus stops (yes, it happened here). And while not all voters understand the economic impact of good or bad tax policy, they certainly know when they can’t afford eggs and chicken to feed their children. »
There is one voice in the county that perhaps carries more than others. It’s that of Jasmine Clark, the Democratic representative from Gwinnett to the Georgia Congress. For this 43-year-old black MP, university professor and specialist in “suburban woman”, “the image of the white suburb, the minivan and houses protected by wooden barriers, is a stereotype from 1980s TV series that still has a tough skin. When communities of color began to have the means to settle, whites left, fearing an invasion..
Listening to him, Trump would still address these white women as if they were still these soap opera characters, “trying to scare them by saying taco vans would be parked on their street corner if they voted Democratic!” » In November, Gwinnett County should vote for Biden, she said. “It’s a geographic question. The blue line is very strong and encroaches more and more on the red counties [républicains, NDLR]. Everything will come down to the 5 to 6% of women who don’t like the Democrats but who don’t want to hand over the keys to the country to Trump, even if they hold their noses. »
Four years ago, Biden won Georgia, a state of 11 million people, by a margin of just 11,000 votes. 11,000 ballots that Trump asked Georgia’s secretary of state to find to overturn the election. A maneuver which led to him being indicted in a trial which should start in Atlanta a month before the election. This shows that “soccer moms” act as referees.
