Month: September 2025

One of Republicans’ most respected pollsters has identified an emerging group of swing voters who could help decide the 2026 midterms: Call them the weighted vest women.

They’re already flooding your social media feeds and neighborhoods — all while donning weighted vests, the latest fitness influencer fad of 2025. You don’t have to look far to find them. They’re covered on the pages of Gwyneth Paltrow’s Goop and can be seen in plenty of TikTok videos.

Christine Matthews — the pollster for former Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan’s reelection campaign, former Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels’ two campaigns and the president of Bellwether Research — first saw women wearing weighted vests all over her upscale neighborhood in Alexandria.

Matthews’ wanted answers to two simple questions: How many women were wearing weighted vests? And what were their politics? So she commissioned a poll of 1,000 women across the U.S., the results of which she shared exclusively with POLITICO.

Matthews found that about one in six women wear this year’s hottest wellness accessory. But more importantly, the weighted vest women broke for President Donald Trump by three points in 2024.

Going into 2026, though, this group backs Republicans and Democrats equally at 47 percent in a generic congressional ballot. Among all women surveyed, 48 percent would vote for Democrats compared to 35 percent for Republicans.

“The people who swing elections, it always sort of comes down — in particular in midterms — to suburban women,” Matthews said in an interview with POLITICO. “This, to me, is just a particularly interesting cohort that is a subset of that group that could swing these elections because they’re so engaged. They look like they’re definite midterm voters.”

These voters are “under age 45, have kids at home, and live in urban/suburban neighborhoods, [are] well-educated, higher-income and highly engaged with politics,” according to Matthews’ poll deck.

“While much more likely to ‘do their own research’ on health matters, they generally trust mainstream medicine and media,” according to the poll deck. “They aren’t vaccine skeptics or seed oil opponents. They are likely to be listening to a podcast while walking with a weighted vest. They are politically split.”

Matthews acknowledges that the weighted vest women comprise a small cohort, which could lead to a higher margin of error. “So we want to track them and get more data going forward,” she said.

More broadly, the poll found that 31 percent of Gen Z women disagree that vaccines are “generally safe,” and are turning to social media, influencers, podcasts and self-research over doctors and institutions for information. Gen Z women are twice as likely as Boomer women to be vaccine skeptics.

The survey also identified “a worrisome trend” among younger moms: 47 percent of moms to kids under 18 “primarily turn to doctors and the medical establishment for advice,” 32 percent “say they do their own research,” 15 percent “follow natural or holistic approaches” and 11 percent “rely on advice from friends/family.”

Some 71 percent of women say vaccines are safe. Democratic women are more confident about vaccine safety than Republican and independent women. Only 24 percent of Republican women strongly agree that vaccines administered in the U.S. are generally safe, while 49 percent of Democratic women strongly agree and 23 percent of independent women strongly agree. Meanwhile, 20 percent of GOP women and 16 percent of Democratic women say seed oils are unhealthy. And women who say seed oils are unhealthy are more likely to be vaccine skeptics.

It’s not yet clear what the defining issues for the weighted vest wearers in the midterms will be, and Matthews plans to commission more research about them in the coming weeks and months. But they appear to lean more conservative than the median voter.

“They have a modern diet of information that is heavily influenced by new media, social streams and podcasts,” Matthews said. “But it doesn’t cause them to go down weird fringe rabbit holes. It encourages them to adopt something like a weighted vest, but not, like, oppose vaccines.”

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​Politics

Kamala Harris is going scorched-earth against her fellow Democrats, criticizing not just Joe Biden but a list of party leaders — and potential 2028 candidates — in her new memoir.

Recounting the whirlwind 107 days of her presidential campaign after Biden dropped out of the race in July 2024 following a disastrous debate performance, the former vice president tosses criticisms at a slew of major Democratic players, from her longtime friend California Gov. Gavin Newsom to party star Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro.

The memoir, titled “107 Days,” presents a raw retelling of the chaotic days between Biden’s bombshell announcement and the November election. Throughout, Harris bluntly describes the failings of a slew of pillars within the Democratic Party, pulling the curtain back on party leadership as Democrats stumble through attempts to land on cohesive messaging during a second Trump era and scramble to elevate possible standard bearers ahead of the 2028 election.

Here are eight Democrats Harris calls out in her new memoir:

Gavin Newsom

The California governor, and Harris’ longtime friend and competitor in their home state, was among the Democrats the former vice president exposed for their response in the hours after Biden dropped out of the race.

“Hiking. Will call back,” Harris wrote of Newsom’s response in notes from her calls that day.

“He never did,” she pointedly added in her memoir, skipping reference to Newsom’s subsequent endorsement hours later.

A spokesperson for Newsom previously declined to comment to POLITICO on the anecdote.

Harris and Newsom, both natives of the Bay Area , have had long and oftentimes overlapping political careers. While Harris, up until her book tour, has largely faded from view after her failed presidential bid, Newsom’s popularity has grown among Democratic voters, especially after the White House sent National Guard troops to the Golden State.

The California governor has come increasingly in the spotlight as one of the few Democratic voices willing to match Trump’s preferred tough-talking form of public sparring.

Gretchen Whitmer

Newsom wasn’t the only Democrat whose response the vice president described as lukewarm.

In her memoir, Harris recounted Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s reticence to commit to an endorsement. According to Harris, Whitmer said she needed to “let the dust settle” following Biden’s withdrawal from the race before making a public statement.

Whitmer, whose name had been floated at the time as a possible Democratic candidate to replace Biden, endorsed Harris the following day — and announced that she would co-chair Harris’ presidential campaign.

A spokesperson for the governor declined to comment on the record.

JB Pritzker

According to her call notes from the day of Biden’s withdrawal, which Harris presented in an italicized list in the early pages of her memoir, Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker also declined to immediately offer an immediate endorsement.

“As governor of Illinois, I’m the convention host,” Harris described as Pritzker’s response. “I can’t commit.”

Pritzker endorsed Harris the day after Biden dropped out.

“Gov. Pritzker fought hard to elect Vice President Harris and Democrats across the state and country,” said a spokesperson for the governor. “He’s proud to have helped lead a convention that built momentum and showcased the Harris-Walz ticket.”

Pete Buttigieg

In a shocking dig at the former Transportation secretary, whom Harris described as a “close friend,” Harris wrote that while Buttigieg was her top pick to join her on the presidential ticket, she ultimately didn’t select him because she didn’t believe America was ready for a Black woman and a gay man in the White House.

“We were already asking a lot of America: to accept a woman, a Black woman, a Black woman married to a Jewish man. Part of me wanted to say, Screw it, let’s just do it. But knowing what was at stake, it was too big of a risk,” Harris wrote, adding that “I think Pete also knew that — to our mutual sadness.”

But according to Buttigieg, Harris’ concerns were “not something that we ever talked about.”

The former Transportation secretary told POLITICO on Thursday that he was “surprised” to read Harris’ thought process on his potential vice presidential candidacy in an excerpt of her book published this week, saying he believes in “giving Americans more credit” than assuming they wouldn’t vote for both of them.

Josh Shapiro

Shapiro, who was also in the running to be Harris’ No. 2, didn’t make the cut either.

Harris was concerned that the Pennsylvania governor’s ambition would prove an obstacle to his willingness to serve in a secondary role to hers.

Shapiro “mused that he would want to be in the room for every decision,” Harris recalled in the memoir, writing that she responded bluntly that “a vice president is not a copresident.”

She just couldn’t trust that he would settle for a role as No. 2.

And while Harris lauded Shapiro as “poised, polished and personable,” she said he “peppered” her and her staff with questions — including how many bedrooms were in the vice president’s home and “how he might arrange to get Pennsylvania artists’ work on loan from the Smithsonian.”

Shapiro also showed a “lack of discretion” in the process, Harris wrote, citing an incident when his car — with Pennsylvania plates — was filmed by CNN outside of her residence despite her staff’s efforts to secure the governor less obvious transportation.

A spokesperson for Shapiro pushed back on Harris’ characterization of the governor, telling POLITICO this week that “it’s simply ridiculous to suggest that Governor Shapiro was focused on anything other than defeating Donald Trump and protecting Pennsylvania from the chaos we are living through now.”

Mark Kelly

The Arizona senator, a former astronaut and retired naval officer, was a strong contender in the veepstakes, Harris recalled, describing him as “magnetic” and saying that she “admired” him.

But while Kelly was an “American ideal of selfless service,” he was also “untarnished” politically. He had yet to weather an “‘oh shit’ moment,” Harris wrote, saying that she “wasn’t sure” how he would handle the kind of attacks Trump was likely to lob his way.

Harris was also wary of the fact that Kelly was slow to sign the pro-labor PRO Act — a choice that she called a “red flag.”

The senator’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Joe Biden

After remaining quiet in the aftermath of her 2024 campaign, Harris finally opened the floodgates on her former boss, calling his decision to run for a second term “reckless.”

Though she did not believe it was “incapacity,” Biden was old, Harris wrote. And it showed. At 81, the president was tired, manifesting in “physical and verbal stumbles,” Harris wrote.

“I don’t think it’s any surprise that the debate debacle happened right after two back-to-back trips to Europe and a flight to the West Coast for a Hollywood fundraiser,” she said.

A spokesperson for Biden previously declined to comment on her book, but several former aides were critical of previously published excerpts in interviews with POLITICO.

But while she did have “concerns” about Biden’s ability to lead a successful campaign, Harris emphasized that “there was a distinction between his ability to campaign and his ability to govern,” writing that he “navigated successfully through intensely dangerous world events.”

Harris stressed that her relationship with Biden was a good one, describing their rapport as “genuine,” based on a foundation of shared values despite being people who “seemingly couldn’t have been more different.”

Still, Harris describes the frustration that she and her husband, Doug, experienced feeling that she had to repeatedly prove her loyalty to the president.

“I had to prove my loyalty, time and time again,” Harris wrote.

But Biden and his White House didn’t offer the same in return. When she was cast as a “DEI hire” or mocked for her laugh by conservatives, the White House stayed silent.

“Getting anything positive said about my work or any defense against untrue attacks was almost impossible,” she wrote.

She also specifically mentioned that Biden called her before her crucial debate with Donald Trump in 2024 to inquire why she supposedly was critical of him to donors. The call rattled her, she wrote.

Biden’s inner circle

But her broadsides weren’t just reserved for the former president.

Harris directed a volley of criticisms at Biden’s inner circle, blaming them for pushing her to the side as her popularity grew in a series of moves that she said ultimately held her back from beating Trump.

Biden’s team thrust thorny policy items onto her plate, reprimanding her after a viral speech she made and failed to defend her against attacks from Republicans and conservative media — even “adding fuel to negative narratives,” including reports of staff turnover in her office — Harris wrote.

And perhaps most of all, Harris blamed Biden’s confidants for not pushing him to step aside sooner.

“’It’s Joe and Jill’s decision.’ We all said that, like a mantra, as if we’d all been hypnotized,” Harris wrote.

But the former vice president dodged blame herself, saying that as Biden’s second in command, any move to encourage the president to step aside would have been seen as “incredibly self-serving.”

​Politics