A ‘View’ co-host asked airport strangers how they voted and learned that grandmas might be the key to avoiding Gilead

Anyone with an eye on politics is currently putting their blood pressure to the test, as they veer between gulping down antacids and chewing through their nails this Election Day.

Even those who make a career out of parsing politics — like yours truly and The View co-host Ana Navarro-Cárdenas — are feeling the pressure, as we face down what could be a disastrous day in American politics. Those of us who lived through 2016 remember that feeling of defeat all too well, and we’re bracing for another dose of that same doom this week.

Navarro-Cárdenas is doing her part through some good old fashioned shoe leather reporting, hitting the ground at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport to speak directly to voters. She was specifically targeting Black men with her questions about voting patterns, but she ended up zeroing in on a completely different demographic as well.

Navarro-Cárdenas took the time to highlight five men, in particular, whom she spoke to across her time at the Atlanta airport in a thread posted to X. Each and every one of them explained that they cast their votes for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz, and they see claims about Black men voting against Harris as “bull crap.”

At least one of them also revealed the real reason he went out to vote: Because his grandma told him to. This simple statement highlighted a vital group, and even if they’re not as vocal as MAGA or as social media-savvy as Gen-Z, their votes count as much as the rest of ours.

Grandmas are a vital demographic, and they’re showing up in more than one way this election. They’re casting their own votes, a right that was enshrined for women in this nation just over a century ago, but they’re also providing a vital secondary service — they’re convincing their grandkids to hit the polls. Young people are notorious for skipping elections, but what grandma says goes, which could mean we see a far higher number than usual of young voters casting their ballots this year.

Its easy to forget the privileges we young Americans have earned off the backs of our predecessors. When many of the grannies encouraging us to vote were young women, they didn’t have a federal right to choose what to do with their bodies. Their husbands were still considered the “head and master” of the household, they could be discriminated against for being female, for being pregnant, or for being a mother. They fought, bled, and suffered for us to attain the privileges we currently enjoy, and they are not interested in turning back the clock on the progress they worked so hard for.

So when your grandma tells you to vote, listen. She worked hard to provide you with so many of the things you now take for granted, and she understands the consequences of a man like Donald Trump better than you do. She has your best interests at heart — what grandma doesn’t? — and she understands, better than most, what happens when you put the fate of women in the hands of the patriarchy.