Security Mom Donna
 | |
| Era | The 2000s |
|---|---|
| Age | 50-59 |
| Home | Massapequa, NY |
| Demographic | white Catholic, Long Island, police family |
| Lean | Swing voter |
| Race | white |
| Predecessor | Levittown Maureen |
| Successor | Suburban Sarah |
Donna is a Catholic school secretary in her fifties on Long Island's South Shore, married to a police officer. Since the September 11 attacks, her vote has depended on which candidate she trusts most with her family's safety, and she is a swing voter.
Who they stand for
Donna stands for the security moms of 2004, married, mostly Catholic, suburban women in the commuter belt beyond New York City's outer boroughs. Many had voted for Bill Clinton and Rudy Giuliani, but moved toward George W. Bush over terrorism. They were a major reason the gender gap narrowed in 2004, when married women voted Republican by a clear margin while single women stayed Democratic. On Long Island this bloc was concentrated among police, fire and Port Authority families, whose parishes buried the World Trade Center dead and whose husbands then worked at the Ground Zero recovery site. Over the following decade these families watched many responders become ill, and saw Congress delay the Zadroga Act until December 2010. They cooled toward the party they had trusted with their safety. Nassau County's high property taxes kept Donna's local politics focused on the school budget throughout.
Donna is part of a lineage of personas representing suburban swing voters. Levittown Maureen, in an earlier decade, and Suburban Sarah, in the modern era, both vote mainly on a candidate's competence and take no side. Donna is different. She has chosen a side, based on her family's safety rather than on party loyalty.
Playing to them
Donna is won mainly through the 9/11 responders. A president who funds their medical care, and names the police officers and firefighters when doing it, holds her support regardless of party. A president who stays silent while the responders become ill loses her support, whatever else he does on security. She supports government surveillance and the death penalty, so a Democratic president does not need to distance himself from the Patriot Act to win her over. However, a Democratic president who talks about the war the way the filmmaker Michael Moore does loses her support immediately. A Republican president keeps her support by emphasising safety, but loses it through moralising about family matters. The federal intervention in the Terri Schiavo case taught her that a government reaching into a family's private decisions does not protect that family.
Holding Donna's support through surveillance and support for the police loses the support of Protest Paige, Berkeley Leonard and Flathead Wade, all of whom see the Patriot Act as a threat, and of Milwaukee Marcus, who does not see the police as protection. Park Slope Dana splits on this. She agrees with Donna about funding the responders, but disagrees with her about wiretapping.
Where they live
The five states where Security Mom Donna makes up the largest share of the electorate in the 2000s:
- Massachusetts
- New York
- New Jersey
- Connecticut
- Rhode Island
Lineage
Levittown Maureen → Security Mom Donna → Suburban Sarah
Suburban swing women who vote on competence and character, except in one decade. Donna, after 9/11, votes on national security because her husband is a police officer who worked at Ground Zero, and turns back when the government neglects the sick responders. Maureen before her and Sarah after her have no side. Sarah voted Obama, then Trump, then Biden. Donna is the only one of the three who picked a side, and she picked it for her family's safety, not for an ideology.