Steve Roberts.

One critical concept has emerged in the contest between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump: Respect.

Trump and his vice presidential pick, J.D. Vance, have handed Harris a priceless opening to press this argument with other women: “They don’t respect me. And they don’t respect you. So they don’t deserve your vote.”

Of course, sexism still persists in America, and helped defeat Hillary Clinton in 2016. While 27 countries are led today by female heads of state or government, the United States has never elected a woman president.

But this year could be different. Democrats can win the White House by maximizing their support from female voters, and Harris’ gender is a clear asset in that effort.

Trump has a long history of demeaning and deriding women, and he’s at it again — mocking Harris’ laugh, garbling her name and deriding her as a “radical left lunatic.”

These sexist tropes could not be clearer: Women are too emotional, and unstable, to be trusted with power. Would Trump ever mention how a man laughs?

The Republicans’ female problem has been severely aggravated by the revelation that Vance, in a 2021 interview with Tucker Carlson, said, “We’re effectively run in this country via the Democrats … by a bunch of childless cat ladies who are miserable at their own lives and the choices that they’ve made.”

Even MAGA loyalists know the considerable political damage these words can cause. Tomi Lahren, a pro-Trump commentator on Fox News, warned: “Trump needs support from women and independents, and as a woman, I can tell you that referring to female voters as ‘cat ladies’ or pointing out their lack of kids isn’t gonna do JACK to win them over. Offending your potential voters over something as personal as maternal status is stupid.”

Meghan McCain, daughter of the late Republican Sen. John McCain, posted on X: “I have been trying to warn every conservative man I know — these J.D. comments are activating women across all sides, including my most conservative, Trump-supporting friends. These comments have caused real pain and are just innately unchristian. This is not who we are.”

Well, actually, McCain has it wrong. Vance’s incendiary words are “activating women” because they accurately reflect and represent what the Republican Party now stands for under Trump. The former president has always treated women like trash, and at 78, he’s not about to change.

“Over many years,” writes The New York Times, “he has turned off a sizable proportion of college-educated voters and suburban women with his rhetoric on gender and race — and the Harris candidacy introduces the risk of Mr. Trump lashing out at her and further alienating those voters.”

Stephanie Grisham, Trump’s former press secretary, predicted that Harris is “going to get a real rise out of him.” When it comes to women, she told The Associated Press, “His go-to is to attack looks and to call women dumb. … I don’t expect this to be any different. … He’s not going to be able to help himself.”

Trump has always been particularly nasty toward women of color, and Harris’ mixed-race background could well provoke even more inflammatory outbursts.

“It’s simple: She’s a Black woman in power and they’re terrified,” Alexandria Onuoha, a Suffolk University researcher who studies the targeting of Black woman, told the Washington Post. “Their mindset is that any woman of color in power is out to take something away from them.”

Trump’s misogynistic attacks badly wounded Clinton, but she was a much easier target, says Patti Solis Doyle, a Democratic operative who worked on the 2016 campaign.

“Hillary was a very polarizing figure,” she told Politico. “So when Trump called her a nasty woman, half of the country was kind of like, ‘Oh, yeah, she kind of is,’ and that’s not the case with Kamala Harris. She doesn’t have that sort of polarized perception from the American people. I think she can bring more people into the tent if he chooses to attack her in that way.”

The other critical change since 2016 is the Supreme Court decision two years ago — supported by three Trump-appointed judges — that nullified the national right to abortion. In a recent CNN poll, two-thirds of voters oppose that decision, and better than any other issue, it crystalizes the stakes in November.

Here’s the question: Can Harris take advantage of this opportunity? She must craft a compelling narrative that says to women: It’s not just your right to control your own body that’s on the ballot. It’s respect for your essential identity and autonomy.

Can she do it?

Steven Roberts teaches politics and journalism at George Washington University. He can be contacted by email at stevecokie@gmail.com.