Melinda French Gates has announced that she will vote for Joe Biden and not Donald Trump in November. She said that she plans on not voting for Trump because of the comments he makes on women and reproductive rights.
When CBS Mornings co-host Gayle King asked Gates if she would endorse a specific candidate, she said, “More than likely, yes.” On being asked who that candidate might be, Gates replied, “Well, I don’t think it would be any surprise.”
“I think, first of all, I think it’s really important to say that I have voted in some elections Republican and some elections Democratic,” Gates said. “But in this election, I cannot vote for a man who rolls back women’s reproductive rights and says the heinous things that he says about women. So, I absolutely am not voting for Trump, and I will vote for Biden.”
Gates added that it is up to women to turn up at the November polls, just as they did during the mid-terms. “It is going to come down in this election; it will come down to the women turning out in the battleground states. They…women turned out in the mid-term elections and said, ‘This is enough.’ And we’ve got to do it again,” she said.
‘Supreme Court decision is welcome news’
{{/usCountry}}Gates added that it is up to women to turn up at the November polls, just as they did during the mid-terms. “It is going to come down in this election; it will come down to the women turning out in the battleground states. They…women turned out in the mid-term elections and said, ‘This is enough.’ And we’ve got to do it again,” she said.
‘Supreme Court decision is welcome news’
{{/usCountry}}Gates is notably a reproductive rights advocate. Just last month, she committed $1 billion to women’s causes.
Last week, when the Supreme Court made a decision that upheld access to the abortion medication mifepristone, she celebrated it, adding that the bigger fight for reproductive rights has not ended. “Today’s Supreme Court decision is welcome news, but the fight for reproductive rights is far from over. Someone else will file a lawsuit. Another state will pass legislation restricting women’s options,” she wrote in a June 13 X post.
“The only way to stop these attacks on women’s autonomy is to make sure that women have the political power to set their own agenda, instead of having their fundamental rights depend on someone else’s. We all have a role to play in this fight. Raise your voice. And vote in November. Your health and your future should be in your hands,” she added.