How do ‘childless cat ladies’ impact the vote?

LANSING, Mich. (WLNS) — 2021 remarks from Vice Presidential candidate Sen. JD Vance have resurfaced, in which he claimed that the U.S. was being run by Democrats, corporate oligarchs, and a “bunch of childless cat ladies who are miserable at their own lives and the choices that they’ve made and so they want to make the rest of the country miserable, too.”

Jennifer Watling Neal and Zachary Neal, two professors in Michigan State University’s Department of Psychology, say there might be more “childless cat ladies” than you might think—and they’re starting to organize politically.

The Neals study “childfree” adults—adults who do not want to have children. According to their research, politicians need to think carefully about how they want to approach that group of voters.

Research from the Neals estimates that 20% to 25% of Michigan adults are childfree—over 1.5 million people. This is in contrast with “childless” adults, who wanted to have children but could not for social or biological reasons. The Neals also say that 3% to 4% of Michigan adults are childless.

Not all childfree individuals have pets— though some do . Childfree individuals have similar personalities and levels of life satisfaction to those who aren’t childfree. However, men are more likely to be childfree than women—26% compared to 18%—and white people are more likely to be childfree than people of color—23% compared to 14%.

In Michigan, childfree adults are more liberal on average than both parents and nonparents who are planning to have children in the future, and the percentage of childfree Michigan adults jumped from 21% to 26% immediately following the Supreme Court’s ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson—which ended a decades-long constitutional protection for abortion access.

However, the Neals say this demographic is often deprioritized by politicians of both major U.S. political parties, who instead focus more on families and children. The Neals say this lack of attention has led directly to the formation of organized groups centered around childfree voters, intended to give them more influence as a voting bloc.

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