Resistance: How Women Saved Democracy from Donald Trump

by Jennifer Rubin

Overview

In the tradition of Shattered and Game Change, Washington Post columnist Jennifer Rubin provides an insider’s look at how women across the political spectrum carried a revolution to the ballot box and defeated Donald Trump, based on interviews with key figures such as Kamala Harris, Amy Klobuchar, Stacey Abrams, Nancy Pelosi, and many more. 

In a compelling narrative, bookended by Donald Trump’s 2016 victory and his 2020 defeat, Rubin delivers an absorbing analysis of the women’s counter-Trump revolution. Resistance tracks a set of dynamic women voters, activists and politicians who rose up when Donald Trump took the White House and fundamentally changed the political landscape. From the first Women’s March the day after Trump’s inauguration to the Blue Wave in the 2018 midterms to the flood of female presidential candidates in 2020 to the inauguration of Kamala Harris, women from across the ideological spectrum entered the political arena and became energized in a way America had not witnessed in decades. They marched, they organized, they donated vast sums of cash, they ran for office, they made new alliances. And they defeated Donald Trump.

Democratic women candidates learned that they could win in large numbers, even in red districts. Black women voters in 2020 surged in Georgia and in suburbs in key swing states. Women across the country voted in greater numbers than in any previous election, flipped the Senate, and ensured victory for the first female Vice President in the nation’s history. While Democrats recorded impressive victories, Republican women delivered critical victories of their own.

From the White House to Congress, from activists to protestors, from liberals to conservatives, Resistance delivers the first comprehensive portrait of women’s historic political surge provoked by the horror of President Trump. This is the indelible story of how American women transformed their own lives, vanquished Trump, secured unprecedented positions of power and redefined US politics decades to come.

Resistance is essential reading for understanding the most important election in American history and the role women played in redesigning modern politics. 

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780062982131
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	09/21/2021
Pages:	416
Sales rank:	281,012
Product dimensions:	9.20(w) x 6.10(h) x 1.50(d)

About the Author

Jennifer Rubin writes reported opinion for the Washington Post. She covers politics and policy, foreign and domestic, and provides insight into the conservative movement, the Republican and Democratic parties, and threats to Western democracies. Rubin, who is also an MSNBC contributor, came to the Post after three years with Commentary magazine. Prior to her career in journalism, Rubin practiced labor law for two decades, an experience that informs and enriches her work. She is a mother of two sons and lives with her husband in D.C.

Table of Contents

Preface xi

Part 1 From Dejection to Elation

Chapter 1 The Nightmare Begins 3

Chapter 2 What Went Wrong? 16

Chapter 3 The Resistance Takes Root 29

Chapter 4 March Forward 43

Chapter 5 The First Big Battles of 2017 53

Chapter 6 Warm-up Elections for 2018 66

Chapter 7 Republican Women Chart a New Course 79

Chapter 8 A New Generation of Democratic Women 99

Chapter 9 The 2018 Battles 111

Chapter 10 A Final Curveball 125

Chapter 11 The Midterm Game Changer 136

Chapter 12 Pelosi Takes Charge Amid a Red State Backlash 155

Part 2 Women Remake Politics

Chapter 13 Can Women Run Both Ends of Pennsylvania Avenue? 171

Chapter 14 The Electability/Likability Trap 190

Chapter 15 The Debates 203

Chapter 16 Impeachment 220

Chapter 17 And Then There Were None 233

Chapter 18 Forging a Feminist Ticket 248

Chapter 19 The Pitch to Women 267

Chapter 20 Race to the Finish 282

Chapter 21 How It Happened 296

Chapter 22 Congress Is a Different Story 311

Chapter 23 2020 Changed Politics for Women 321

Chapter 24 Women Change Laws and Politics 336

Acknowledgments 347

Author's Note 351

Sources 353

Index 391

Editorial Reviews

07/19/2021

Washington Post columnist Rubin debuts with an illuminating take on the Trump presidency that focuses on how “millions of women transformed their own lives and recaptured our democracy from the clutches of an authoritarian narcissist.” Profile subjects include Ilyse Hogue, president of NARAL Pro-Choice America; Rep. Abigail Spanberger, a former CIA agent who flipped her Virginia congressional district in 2018; and Leah Greenberg, who founded the Indivisible Project in 2016 to help organize anti-Trump activists on a local level. In the 2018 midterms, Democrats took control of the House of Representatives with the help of EMILY’s List, a 35-year-old nonprofit that supported female candidates such as California congresswoman Katie Porter, the first Democrat elected to her Orange County district. Rubin also details the “misogynistic chatter” that sought to undermine Kamala Harris’s vice presidential nomination, and discusses protests against Brett Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court nomination and Republican women’s abandonment of the party out of disgust with Trump. Rubin’s portrait of the Democratic Party favors centrists while downplaying the contributions of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and other progressives. Still, this is a cohesive and wide-ranging look at how women led the fight against the Trump administration. Agent: Bridget Wagner Matzie, Aevitas Creative Management. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly

A thoughtful study of the critical role of women in containing and defeating Donald Trump…. An excellent contribution to the literature of contemporary electoral politics.”  — Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

“Illuminating… a cohesive and wide-ranging look at how women led the fight against the Trump administration.” — Publishers Weekly

"From her respected positions as a columnist for the Washington Post and contributor to MSNBC, Rubin is uniquely situated to assess this political uprising and chronicle the role of women on the front lines in the war to claim gender equity and protect democratic values. The result is a keenly analytical appreciation for and deeply personal connection to the ways in which the modern American female electorate has been reawakened and reenergized to reimagine a more inclusive political landscape." — Booklist

“This powerful and insightful book tells the story of women from all walks of life who led what amounted to the third women’s revolution: the resistance to Donald Trump and all that he stands for. Jennifer Rubin offers an antidote to Trump-era sexism, racism, indecency, and corruption: It’s the women of America who care more and do more for their country than most men, modern-day suffragettes like Kamala Harris, Neera Tanden, Ilyse Hogue, Sarah Longwell, and Abigail Spanberger. There is hope for mankind." — Ron Fournier, former political reporter and bestselling author of Love That Boy and Applebee’s America

“Sweeping and smart—Jennifer Rubin dedicates her lively account of the resistance to Donald Trump and his presidency to ‘democracy’s defenders,’ a group that was led and defined by women. Among the unintended consequences of his surprising 2016 victory, this deeply reported book finds, was the movement he forged among them, with powerful consequences that reverberate today.” — Susan Page, author of The Matriarch and Madam Speaker

From the Publisher

★ 2021-06-23
Washington Post writer Rubin delivers a thoughtful study of the critical role of women in containing and defeating Donald Trump.

There were plenty of Republican women who supported Trump’s nationalist, White supremacist regime. Upon his election in 2016, writes the author, “I steeled myself for the likelihood that Republicans would countenance reckless and even illegal behavior.” Which they did, to destructive effect. But there were plenty of others who were determined to fight Trump’s policies. Many left the Republican Party as a result of his election since the signals were strong that women would have little in the way of a meaningful role in the new administration—unless their name was Ivanka. Many more organized, ran for office, joined grassroots organizations, and donated time and money. Rubin ponders numerous questions that may in fact be imponderable, including the central one of the moment: Why wasn’t Hillary Clinton elected? The answer may hinge in part on her weakness as a campaigner; more likely, writes the author, it was simple misogyny at work. Whatever the case, the resistance of women had an immediate effect, proven in the 2018 midterm elections, when, in formerly Republican Virginia the Democrats fielded a record number of women candidates at all levels of government, including a transgender woman, Asians and Pacific Islanders, and a self-identified lesbian. All won. Even in Alabama, “every single county swung left compared to 2016,” while in Georgia, Stacey Abrams, foreseeing legislation that would attempt to suppress the minority vote, enrolled more than 1 million Black voters. (Rubin correctly notes that if women were the principal change agents in 2018 and 2020, Black women were at the absolute center of the movement.) A sleeping giant thus awakened, Rubin holds that no one should imagine that women will now sit back and allow Trump to return, since, after all, he “taught us the unacceptable price of passivity.”

An excellent contribution to the literature of contemporary electoral politics.

Kirkus Reviews

This powerful and insightful book tells the story of women from all walks of life who led what amounted to the third women’s revolution: the resistance to Donald Trump and all that he stands for. Jennifer Rubin offers an antidote to Trump-era sexism, racism, indecency, and corruption: It’s the women of America who care more and do more for their country than most men, modern-day suffragettes like Kamala Harris, Neera Tanden, Ilyse Hogue, Sarah Longwell, and Abigail Spanberger. There is hope for mankind."

Ron Fournier

"From her respected positions as a columnist for the Washington Post and contributor to MSNBC, Rubin is uniquely situated to assess this political uprising and chronicle the role of women on the front lines in the war to claim gender equity and protect democratic values. The result is a keenly analytical appreciation for and deeply personal connection to the ways in which the modern American female electorate has been reawakened and reenergized to reimagine a more inclusive political landscape."

Booklist

Sweeping and smart—Jennifer Rubin dedicates her lively account of the resistance to Donald Trump and his presidency to ‘democracy’s defenders,’ a group that was led and defined by women. Among the unintended consequences of his surprising 2016 victory, this deeply reported book finds, was the movement he forged among them, with powerful consequences that reverberate today.

Susan Page

"From her respected positions as a columnist for the Washington Post and contributor to MSNBC, Rubin is uniquely situated to assess this political uprising and chronicle the role of women on the front lines in the war to claim gender equity and protect democratic values. The result is a keenly analytical appreciation for and deeply personal connection to the ways in which the modern American female electorate has been reawakened and reenergized to reimagine a more inclusive political landscape."

Booklist