Female Vote Is Enormous Amid Growing Voter Registration: Chair of Women Business Collaborative

Earlier, we spoke with Edie Fraser, chair and founder of the Women Business Collaborative, about Harris' interview and the female vote in the November election. Fraser is also the author of Women Mean Business. Edie Fraser, thank you so much for joining us. Great to have you on the show. It's a joy. Now, to begin, Kamala Harris could become the first woman president of the United States. Given your own background, how do you see the female vote impacting this year's election? Female vote is enormous, and it's something that many of us have worked for for decades. And it's so important that the female vote be recognized from young people and the really good data that's coming out. Since Kamala was named and achieved our endorsement, the young women registrants have gone up 37 percent with young voters. And that's so critical as we look at not only all ages, but we are so excited to work with the whole sisterhood. And that really means that the Black women are there and all their sororities, et cetera. These Asian women have been just outstanding. The Hispanic women, the business women, the labor women, the women that have been working so hard to get out the vote, the choice women, which we all hope is going to impact getting independence, the Republican women who want to truly see some strength and are excited about Kamala Harris and Tim Walz, not because she's a woman and a woman of color, even though it's so exciting to us finally. And it's happened in seven, eight other major countries in the last eight years. But it is time to see the positive energy, the joy, the commitment and to turn that we won't stop until we see ahead with positivity and progress. So in 2020, 89 million women were registered to vote. That's versus 79 million men. And the female voting bloc is also more likely to turn out and vote. This is according to the Center for American Women and Politics. Now, I've seen Kamala Harris and the Democratic Party highlight abortion as a key issue. And then, of course, she is herself a woman of color. Now, on the Republican side, we've seen former President Trump talking about sending the issue of abortion back to the states. He's also recently proposing having the government or insurance companies pay for IVF. Now, how successful do you see each camp in reaching into those suburban women votes? Well, first of all, if we look at the states that have already used choices and issues, like Midwest states, like Nebraska, and that the voters turned out. And we've seen that now in about 19 states where now abortion being on the ballot. I think the point that we all make, it is so important that it's a woman and their doctors, the choice issue, the freedom, the freedom of choice, the freedom to vote, the freedom to make certain that we can protect our families. So all the women that we're talking about are reaching out to vote, to volunteer, and to raise money. And we pray for the day that we are not just Democratic women, that we're all women, and that these issues make such a difference. You know, it's really fun. We said, just a small group of us, what could we do that would be different? So about a month ago, as we geared up, and with a fellow entrepreneur friend by the name of Beth Ward, who has produced jewelry for all the big manufacturers under private label, we said, what if we could do a pin? And we worked with the Harris Victory Fund to take her keywords. We choose freedom, right? And that's our freedom to choose, et cetera. In at the convention, and now across the country, we have distributed 30,000 pins in three weeks. And those come from women's groups that are Hispanic groups, Jewish groups, Asian groups. It comes from the YWCA. It comes, it's just extraordinary. We are donating 50,000 pins. Now, that's a small number, but it just shares that what the excitement is, because in about two weeks, we've had 33 women funded this effort so that they show that women can also do anything and do it quickly with expediency and with a sense of passion. So for everybody wearing a pin, we're taking photos, we're posting them. The young women are in college campuses. And we just say thank you to everyone with this new spirit that come join us together. We have seen lately the polls are showing Kamala Harris leading Trump, but all of those polls are still within the margin of error. It does seem like it will come down. This election will come down to that enthusiasm, that voter turnout. Now, speaking of this election, we saw Kamala Harris and her running mate, Governor Tim Walz, sit down for their first media interview with CNN yesterday. Now, we've seen both Republicans and Democrats criticize that Walz was also present for this interview. In your view, would you have liked to hear directly from Harris herself? Well, I think 90 percent was Harris, but they're a team. We're all one team. I think when we look at the other side, it's about me and we are about we. So I think the passion that we've seen and the goodness of Tim Walz, of what he's done not only for governor, but the college coach helping with the kids. So yesterday, the discussion on CNN showed the reality and the spirit that we're building. So we hope on September 10th and that across America, from businesswomen, labor women across the board and the men are with us because you can't have choice without the men being with us. So families are just critical. And also the key points about being for you and your economy and what we believe is done to bring inflation down, to truly bring prices wherever we can. And then looking back at the building of what we've got to really bring back manufacturing in America, those types of issues with clean energy jobs. Yes, she talked about fracking yesterday, but it's about all of support of economic issue, bringing great jobs, whether you go to college or not. We want to bring a big tent together and do that for all. Edie Fraser, thank you so much for joining us. Yeah, a joy. And to all of your followers, thank you for what we do. Get engaged, get involved, share your views and onward as we march together.