Here we go again, Christian nationalist blames women for America’s issues, questions their right to vote

Dale Partridge, an Arizona pastor, recently declared that the majority of women simply aren’t capable of responsible voting. So, he openly called for the repeal of the constitutional amendment that has guaranteed women the right to vote in the United States since 1920. 

This clip, which also hit X, shows Partridge asserting that “one of America’s biggest threats is white liberal women,” a belief he says fuels his push to overturn the 19th Amendment. The thing is, according to International Business Times, this is the latest step in a months-long campaign. He has already announced a book, ambitiously titled ’19 Reasons to Repeal the 19th Amendment,’ and stated his goal of seeing women’s suffrage overturned within the next decade. 

The 19th Amendment legally guarantees American women the right to vote. It didn’t just appear overnight; it was the result of a long, incredibly difficult struggle that began in the mid-19th century. Many early supporters never even lived to see their victory in 1920.

There is outrage, and then whatever I am feeling at the moment

Between 1878, when the amendment first appeared in Congress, and August 18, 1920, when it was ratified, women organized, petitioned, and picketed. They often faced heckling, jailing, and sometimes even physical abuse for a basic right. 

Per The National Archives, things began to change when New York adopted women’s suffrage in 1917, and in 1920, Tennessee provided the crucial three-fourths threshold required under Article V of the Constitution. However, even with ratification, full enfranchisement wasn’t immediate for everyone, as women of color continued to face discriminatory barriers for many decades.

In November 2024, Partridge posted on X that “in a Christian marriage, a wife should vote according to her husband’s direction.” That same month, he also wrote that “nearly every legalised moral atrocity in the last 100 years was made possible by the female vote.” 

He frames his argument over the 19th Amendment not as hostility. Instead, he says, “I think we should repeal the 19th Amendment because I love America and American women and want to protect our nation from their suicidal empathy.” 

In March, when he announced his book, he stated his goal to build enough public support over “the next 10, 15 years” for “a Supreme Court case repealing the 19th.” Thankfully, Partridge is stupid, and his legal strategy has a pretty fundamental flaw. The 19th Amendment is a part of the United States Constitution, and thus the Supreme Court has no say. 

The court’s authority under judicial review extends only to statutory law and executive action, not to provisions of the Constitution itself. Repealing the 19th Amendment would require a proposal passed by two-thirds of both chambers of Congress, followed by ratification by legislatures in three-quarters of all 50 states. That means 38 states would need to approve its removal. Which, at this point, is a political impossibility.

The only constitutional amendment ever repealed in American history was the 18th, which established Prohibition. Even then, it took 14 years and required a special ratifying convention process. 

Partridge seemed unaware of this crucial procedural distinction when he said, “If we can repeal Roe v. Wade, then I think we can overturn the 19th Amendment.” As stupid as I think he is, unfortunately, he is simply a part of a broader online movement. The hashtag #RepealThe19th has been circulating persistently on X, and this argument has spread from anonymous accounts to the stated positions of identifiable figures, including other pastors, podcasters, and far-right commentators.

The problem is, even with the 19th Amendment still in place, the SAVE Act will disenfranchise women voters, as one GOP senator just realized. So this fight, to protect our rights, is already one and if we don’t make a stand, they can disappear as fast as someone scraping letters off a wall.