Resistance Grandmas: Inside the Shift of Affluent, Educated White Women
- A Trump-aligned study found a new leftward bloc among affluent, college-educated white women.
- Focus group footage captures strong language, cultural comparisons, and zeal for activism.
- Polling shifts tie political change more to education and income than to gender alone.
A Trump-aligned consulting arm, National Public Affairs, ran a September study and a Northern Virginia focus group that it says uncovers a new left-leaning bloc dubbed “Resistance Grandmas.” The firm shared a report conducted and Fox News Digital reviewed the full session. The findings try to map how wealthy, college-educated white women have moved left in recent cycles.
In a Northern Virginia focus group one participant said, “We are so knowledgeable about everything,” and she added, “When [Trump voters] start being personally impacted, that’s when I’m hopeful that a little bit of something is gonna change.” Those lines show the confidence and impatience this group expresses about persuading others. The session mixed moral outrage with a belief in information advantage.
One woman warned, “It’s gonna be a catastrophe,” while another added, “However, they will find a way to blame Democrats.” The conveners did not identify the session as Trump-aligned and told participants the research firm had “no stake” in their comments “one way or the other,” noting they “could say whatever comes to mind.” The leader also said, “Pretty much anything is fair game,” as the video captured unfiltered reactions.
“In the year since President Trump’s historic victory, commentators have obsessed over what they call the radicalization of young white men. But a quieter, just as revealing transformation has swept another group once known for moderation and civility: older, affluent white women. This change came into sharp focus last August in Arlington, Virginia,” NPA’s report outlines.
The flashpoint was a racist sign spotted at a school board meeting and the report links that incident to larger cultural shifts in the suburbs. The sign read, “Hey Winsome, if trans can’t share your bathroom, then blacks can’t share my water fountain,” and it triggered predictable outrage and debate over limits of protest. The women in the group mostly called the language “ugly” while arguing broader GOP policies on trans issues went too far.
One participant asked, “What’s the best analogy for a trans person not being able to use a particular bathroom in our recent modern history?” and another answered with, “You used to have hotels that said ‘No n—-rs, no Jews, no dogs at these hotels. Is that… I don’t know if that’s the same thing.” A third replied, “Like, I don’t think I would feel uncomfortable, and I definitely wouldn’t hold up that sign,” showing contested judgments about offense and intent.
“In 2012, college graduates leaned Republican, 51-47, while postgraduates favored Democrats 55-42. By 2024, that pattern had flipped and widened: Harris won college grads 53-45 and postgrads 59-38. Non-college voters went the other way. High-school grads and those with some college, once evenly split, gave Trump a 56-43 lead,” the report found. “Income followed suit. Voters earning under $50,000, once a 60-38 Obama bloc, shifted to a 50-48 Trump edge. Those earning over $100,000 flipped from a 54-44 Romney majority to a 51-47 Harris win,” it continued.
The authors pushed back on media focus about “what ‘broke’ young white men” and urged a tougher question: “What radicalized rich white women, and whether they even realize it.” Participants repeatedly framed themselves as having the “luxury” to follow national outlets while accusing others of focusing only on daily survival. That gap in attention, they argued, helps explain divergent political trends.
One woman recounted that her cousin living in a Heartland state was a lifelong Democrat who announced ahead of the 2024 election that he was leaning towards voting for Trump, which the woman said made her nearly fall “off my chair.” The cousin, a male farmer, reported to her that the Biden administration had not helped U.S. farmers. “He doesn’t know. He’s not paying attention to China’s not buying wheat or soybeans,” the female voter said.
The session turned personal when one member said she reported a friend who breached the Capitol. “We were just walking around,” the woman recounted, and she added, “And I said, ‘It wasn’t a f—ing open house. You weren’t, you weren’t buying the Capitol,'” as others responded, “Wow” and “Good for you.” The woman later described agonizing over filing a tip and ultimately doing so.
“And then I had that whole inner turmoil of, ‘do I go on that website and say I think that she would’ …. I went back and forth on that for probably two weeks and asked some people. And finally, I just went on and said ‘she was there, and I don’t know what role she had, what it was,'” she said. “‘She was in that building by her own admission.'”
“Beneath polls and party lines, the real contest for the nation’s future is over how Americans think, speak, and live with one another,” the report concluded. Participants urged Democrats to stop self-sabotaging primaries and to craft a coherent, aggressive message. “Democrats need to stop primarying for the lesser Republican. So what’s happening is … Democrats are voting between two Republican primary candidates, and they’re voting for the idiot, crazy, right-wing guy so that they don’t have to compete against this actual intelligent person. And that’s where we’re getting these nutcases,” one woman said.
“I think it comes from the DNC. I think they need to organize. I think they need a cohesive message. I think they need to be vocal every time Trump says something, even about Charlie Kirk. Yes. No one should be killed for what they believe in. A hundred percent. But they are turning him into a martyr,” one woman said.
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