Your daughters are abandoning you over abortion, Republicans

It’s no secret that children often adopt the political attitudes of their parents, especially when they grow up in households where the parents are politically engaged and political discussion is common. This phenomenon, called political socialization, occurs in households across the political spectrum. As explained by Daniel Cox, the head of the American Enterprise Institute’s Survey Center on American Life, it also plays out in homes in which political leanings are less partisan but still gravitate towards one party.  

There is one critical exception to this pattern, one which explains why this generational consistency is higher in Democratic-leaning households than in Republican ones. As explained by Cox, writing for his ”Storylines” Substack, just 44% of young women raised in GOP households report they are Republican as adults, in contrast to 67% of young men. 

That singular distinction, as explained by Cox in an interview with POLITICO’s Calder McHugh, is due to a number of factors, including more LGBTQ+ acceptance among young women, the influence of higher education, and the repellent nature of the Republican Party in its current incarnation under Donald Trump.

But thanks to the heedless actions of the U.S. Supreme Court, the most decisive issue now for young women, according to Cox, is abortion.