On Politics With Lisa Lerer: ‘Horseface’ and the Year of the Woman

How an insult from the president might play in a record-breaking year for women; asking for your local political issues; and new campaign fund-raising numbers. [Trouble seeing this email? View in browser]( [The New York Times]( [The New York Times]( October 16, 2018 | Evening Edition [Lisa Lerer] Hi. Welcome to On Politics, your guide to the day in national politics. I’m Lisa Lerer, your host. Kamil Zihnioglu/EPA, via Shutterstock We’re 21 days out from the midterm elections. Republicans face a [vast]( gap](. One of their most reliable voting blocs — college-educated white women — now overwhelmingly [favor]( Democrats. And a historic number of women are running for office. So the president, who’s invested a lot of time in campaigning for G.O.P. candidates, decides to make a [public statement](. The key word in that — in case you somehow missed it — was “Horseface.” (Stormy Daniels, the target of the insult, [responde]( in kind]( ADVERTISEMENT By this point, you’d have to be living inside the [Voyager spacecraft]( to be surprised by President Trump’s Twitter account. But I think it’s worth a reminder that there’s a pattern to the patter. My brilliant colleague Julie Hirschfeld Davis and I racked our brains to come up with a list of all the women who had been publicly insulted by Mr. Trump since he became a presidential candidate. Megyn Kelly: “Bimbo”; “blood coming out of her wherever.” Heidi Klum: “Sadly, she’s no longer a 10.” Heidi Cruz: “A picture is worth a thousand words” (next to an unflattering photo of her). Carly Fiorina: “Look at that face. Would anyone vote for that?” Alicia Machado: “Disgusting”; “Miss Piggy.” Mika Brzezinski: “Bleeding badly from a face-lift.” Natasha Stoynoff, who accused Mr. Trump of sexual assault: “Look at her, look at her words, you tell me what you think. I don’t think so.” Omarosa Manigault Newman: “That dog.” Arianna Huffington: “Extremely unattractive (both inside and out).” Representative Maxine Waters: “An extraordinarily low IQ person.” Senator Elizabeth Warren: “You find anything nice about her cheekbones? I dunno.” Hillary Clinton: “When she walked in front of me, believe me, I wasn’t impressed.” Will any of this matter? Well, it didn’t in 2016. (See: tape, Access Hollywood.) But it might be different this year, because — and this is important — midterms are not presidential elections. The fact that more than 60 percent of white, college-educated woman back Democrats is likely a sign that Mr. Trump’s sexism may be having an impact on some voters. (Those numbers are part of the reason you hear us going on and on about suburban women.) Strategists from both sides say the gender gap shows that Mr. Trump’s denigration of women — including those he allegedly had affairs with — is undoing years of work by the Republican Party to court female voters. That dynamic makes things complicated for Republicans, particularly those running in the kind of suburban seats that could determine control of the House. Jay Webber, a Republican who’s running in suburban New Jersey, told me a few weeks ago that it was impossible to ignore the president — no matter how hard he tried. “He’s a major public figure. He’s very influential. You can’t get around it in 1,000 ways.” His solution: Try to talk about other things. “The executive is not on ballot. I’m not running President Trump’s re-election campaign. I’m running to represent the 11th Congressional District,” he said. ([Here’s the polling we’ve done on his district.]( Is his strategy working? We’ll find out on Nov. 6. But at least one thing is pretty clear already: “Horseface” can’t be helping. ____________________ Tell us about your local issues We spend a lot of time in this newsletter talking about policy on a national scale. But it’s local political issues that affect the way we live every day. In Anchorage, Alaska, voters [crowded into a hearing on protecting salmon habitats](. Congressional races in Florida are talking about [toxic algae blooms](. The candidates for governor of California are confronting the state’s [homelessness crisis](. We want to hear about the local issues that you’re thinking about, and voting on, this November. What are people talking about in your town, city or state? Email us at [onpolitics@nytimes.com](mailto:onpolitics@nytimes.com?te=1&nl=politics&emc=edit_cn_2018101620181016). We’ll collect some of your responses for a newsletter later this week. ____________________ Money, money, money Candidates running in the midterms filed their campaign fund-raising reports last night. ([Read our story here.]( What do the numbers tell us? • Democrats out-raised Republicans in tight races. In the 69 [most competitive House races]( Democrats raised $252 million to Republicans’ $172 million. • Small-dollar donations vs. large donors. Democrats raised much of their total from small donations online. Republicans, meanwhile, relied more heavily on large givers — the Las Vegas casino mogul Sheldon Adelson and his wife donated $55 million to Republican super PACs last month. • Mr. Trump has raised a lot. The latest filings showed that his re-election war-chest [now exceeds]( $100 million. It donated to over 100 congressional campaigns and spent $1.6 million on legal fees. [See the totals in the most competitive House races.]( ____________________ What to read tonight • Charlottesville’s school district has one of the biggest racial gaps in the country. [Here’s why]( and what it means for students.]( • Lyric McHenry grew up in Beverly Hills, breezed through Stanford and mastered French in Paris. How did she wind up [dead on an overpass in the Bronx]( • Politico looks into how [red and green slime]( could impact Florida’s elections. ____________________ … Seriously I’m ready for air taxis! ([Watch the video here.]( _____________________ Were you forwarded this newsletter? [Subscribe here to get it delivered to your inbox.]( Thanks for reading. Politics is more than what goes on inside the White House. On Politics brings you the people, issues and ideas reshaping our world. Is there anything you think we’re missing? Anything you want to see more of? We’d love to hear from you. 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