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FiveThirtyEight Politics

Campaign Throwback: 'Soccer Moms'

FiveThirtyEight Politics

ABC News

News, Politics

4.620.6K Ratings

🗓️ 30 December 2024

⏱️ 29 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

This is the second installment of the 538 Politics podcast mini-series, “Campaign Throwback.” Across three episodes, we're taking a look back at campaign tropes from past elections such as, “it’s the economy, stupid,” or “soccer moms” or that question about which candidate you’d rather share a beer with. We’ll ask where those tropes came from, whether they were actually true at the time and if they still hold up today. In our second installment: "soccer moms." In 1992, Bill Clinton won the presidential election in what was called the "year of the woman" after a record number of women ran for office and won. As the 1996 election took shape, gender politics were still at the forefront of campaign coverage. As Clinton’s popularity was growing and Republican Bob Dole was lagging in the early polls, the idea took hold that “soccer moms” might either save Dole’s chances or ensure that Clinton made it over the edge. But when the election was all said and done, was that conventional wisdom correct? This episode originally aired in May. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

911. What is the address to emergency?

0:04.2

This 911 call began an investigation that would turn the town of Ashland, Ohio, into a crime scene.

0:11.9

We've got something big going on here.

0:13.8

The first thing you hit my mind is a monster.

0:16.7

A new series from ABC Audio in 2020.

0:20.7

The Hand in the Window.

0:23.6

Out now, wherever you listen to podcasts.

0:29.1

Married moms in the suburbs.

0:30.8

They've been called soccer moms.

0:32.0

They've been called security moms.

0:33.5

Hamila Wilk is a so-called soccer mom.

0:35.8

Those so-called Walmart moms.

0:37.7

She calls herself a hockey mom.

0:39.2

I love those hockey moms.

0:40.5

The hockey mom trying to connect with the soccer mom.

0:43.3

Those are real-life brown bears, not political mama grizzlies.

0:52.0

Hello and welcome to the 538 politics podcast.

0:59.2

I'm Gailen Drook.

1:00.7

Today, we're re-airing our second installment of the campaign throwback series,

1:04.6

which originally aired in May.

1:06.8

This episode dives into the phenomenon of soccer moms,

1:10.3

those famously swinging minivan-driving voters who became a political obsession in the 1990s.

...

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