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Stereotypes surround childfree people in the 2024 presidential campaign

An official portrait of J.D. Vance in front of the U.S. and Ohio flags.
Courtesy
In a 2021 interview, U.S. Senator J.D. Vance (R-Ohio), the Republican vice-presidential nominee, said the country was being run by groups that include "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."

One of the issues candidates in this year’s presidential campaign have been focusing on is the role people without children play in politics. Senator J.D Vance (R-Ohio), the Republican vice-presidential nominee, brought the topic front and center in the campaign with his comments in a previous interview about “childless cat ladies."

Researchers say "child free" adults make up a large portion of Michigan’s population—and the group is becoming increasingly active in politics.

Child free people are those that don’t have and don’t want to have children. Michigan State University psychology professor Zachary Neal studies that demographic. He estimates close to one fourth of Michigan adults are childfree, around 1.5 million people.

By comparison, national studies indicate around ten to 20 percent of the U.S. population identifies as child free.

Vance and other politicians have made comments suggesting people who don’t have and don’t want children are more depressed—and that they don’t have as much of an investment in the country’s future.

Neal said those conclusions amount to stereotypes.

“We see nothing to suggest that child free people are less happy, less satisfied with their lives, and really nothing to suggest that when looking back on their lives, they express any sort of regret about having decided not to have children,” he said.

Neal's research shows the politics of child free adults tend to lean slightly more liberal, while people with children tend to lean slightly more conservative.

The group's population also seems to be growing. Following the Supreme Court ruling that disrupted federal protections for abortion rights, the number of Michigan adults who said they didn't have or want children was higher than prior to the decision.

"It may have been politically motivated, it may have been medically motivated, but it seems like these sorts of decisions and political moves have a very real effect on whether people even want to have children," Neal said.

Neal said both Democrats and Republicans tend to focus more on families and parents, and less on people who don’t want and don’t have children. He added discussions around child free people tend to center around infertility and access to IVF.

He says the child free population could continue to gain influence over policymakers in the future.

"They're making the implicit assumption that everyone wants children," he said. "We're not quite sure why, really, on both the left and the right, this group isn't part of the conversation. One possibility is that it just hasn't coalesced as a voting constituency."

But that may be changing in light of this year's election. Neal said those who don't want or have children are becoming more organized. He said their growing political influence is visible in pop singer Taylor Swift’s endorsement of the Harris campaign following this week's debate.

“She explicitly signed it 'Childless Cat Lady,'" Neal said. "This seems to suggest that this is an identity that's starting to become activated in voters. So while it hasn't been an active voting constituency in the past, we anticipate it likely will be in the future, and given the large size, we think it may be a fairly influential one.”

Arjun Thakkar is WKAR's politics and civics reporter.
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