When Americans say they don’t trust the medical establishment, Democrats have one reflexive answer: defend the science, correct the misinformation and warn about the dangers of the alternative. There is plenty to correct. Kennedy Jr. has promoted false claims about vaccines, and the Make America Healthy Again movement that formed around him has no shortage of pseudoscience.
But on the left, the women drawn to MAHA have been written off as fringe or crazy: conspiracy theorists, anti-vax moms, a punchline. Telling a woman she’s an idiot for asking what microplastics are doing to her body is not an argument for evidence-based medicine, but it is a good way to make sure she stops listening to you. That dismissal is a mistake Democrats can’t afford.
These are women the party should be winning, and 2024 demonstrates many of them are women Republicans used to win. Without them, Democrats are putting Congress at risk this November, and the White House at risk in 2028. Corporate America has already noticed.
Recently, Sweetgreen CEO Jonathan Neman joined a panel at the MAHA Summit in Washington, an event headlined by RFK and Vice President JD Vance. For a salad chain built on a largely progressive, urban customer base, the move raised eyebrows, but we think it makes complete sense. Sweetgreen has always known where its customers are, and we think the Democratic Party should, too.
We say this because we know—and are—this customer. We built two national reproductive-rights campaigns, Vote for Abortion and Hotties for Harris, from scratch, traveling the country talking to women about abortion and politics. We also teach and practice yoga and Pilates, attend wellness retreats, and do the grocery shopping for our families—the exact spaces where MAHA has found its audience.
The women in those rooms look nothing like the caricature of the gullible wellness consumer. They are highly educated professionals, activists, and women with serious scientific literacy. Some question the chemicals in the food their kids eat, or raise concerns about how little regulation governs our food.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
