A former Republican congresswoman is warning women to run from her own party, calling Donald Trump a “horrible misogynist” who turned the GOP into a “cesspool” — but exit poll numbers from Trump’s own party tell a very different story.
Quick Take
- Former Virginia Rep. Barbara Comstock called Trump a “horrible misogynist” who “dramatically changed the party’s culture.”
- She told women candidates to “stay away from this cesspool” while Trump leads the ticket.
- Her criticism goes back to 2016, when she called Trump’s leaked comments “revolting, despicable, and disqualifying.”
- Exit polling shows Republican women backed Trump at almost the same rate as Republican men, complicating her claim.
- Academic researchers say the fight over women in the GOP is bigger than one politician’s words.
Comstock’s Warning to Women Candidates
Barbara Comstock, who once represented Virginia in the House, told a gathering at the National Press Foundation’s Women in Politics Journalism Fellowship that Trump is a “horrible misogynist” who has “dramatically changed the party’s culture.” She went further, telling women thinking about running for office as Republicans to steer clear entirely while Trump remains on the ballot. “Stay away from this cesspool right now,” she said, warning them not to “deal with all that crap.”
Bill Kristol and Barbara Comstock: Trump-hate is their reason for getting out of bed in the a.m.
— Tom McCarthy (@ishmael0464) September 6, 2026
Her comments spread fast online, with critics accusing her of using extreme language to describe her own party. Some social media users pointed out that Comstock and other Trump critics, like former GOP strategist Bill Kristol, have built entire post-Congress careers around opposing Trump, raising questions about how her personal history shapes her public statements.
A Decade of Public Break With Trump
Comstock’s criticism did not start in 2024. Back in October 2016, after a leaked recording of Trump’s lewd comments became public, she called his words “revolting, despicable, and disqualifying” and said “no woman should have to endure this kind of lewd behavior.” She joined other Republicans in calling on Trump to leave the race that year, showing her break with him has lasted nearly a decade rather than being a one-time reaction.
She has kept up the pressure since. In 2018, she pushed for Roy Moore to drop out of his Senate race and backed anti-harassment legislation in Congress. By 2024, she was telling reporters there is a “silent group of women” ready to vote against Trump, and said he “consistently belittles women.” She also endorsed Kamala Harris that year.
What the Voting Numbers Actually Show
Here is where Comstock’s claim runs into trouble. Exit polling from 2016 found 88% of Republican women voted for Trump, almost the same as the 89% of Republican men who did. That is according to an academic analysis published on the topic of sexism and Republican voting patterns. Trump also won a plurality of women’s votes in most of the Republican primary states he carried that year, based on separate research.
More recent numbers add another wrinkle. One tracking source found young women’s support for Trump grew from 33% in 2020 to 40% in 2024. Republican women have also held leadership roles throughout his time in office, including as party chair and in top House posts. These facts do not disprove Comstock’s personal experience, but they do show her claim about a party-wide exodus of women is not fully backed by the voting data.
The Larger Debate Over Women in the GOP
Researchers who study what they call “political misogyny” say this kind of dispute is not unique to Trump. Their work describes a pattern where powerful men make harsh public claims about women in politics, and those claims can shape how female candidates are recruited and treated across both parties.
Separate research has found Republican women have historically been less likely than Democratic women to get more involved in politics after election losses, a gap researchers linked to recruitment and support systems rather than any single leader. That suggests the challenges facing GOP women candidates existed before Trump and may outlast the current political moment, regardless of how his tenure in office is judged.
Party leaders have not directly responded to Comstock’s latest remarks, leaving it unclear whether her view reflects a wider concern inside the GOP or mostly her own long-running dispute with Trump. What is clear is that the voting numbers and her warning to future candidates do not fully line up, giving both sides of the debate real material to argue over.
Sources:
twitchy.com, nationalpress.org, en.wikipedia.org, yahoo.com, nypost.com, nyupress.org, cesj.as.uky.edu
