A ‘90s sitcom character became the center of political controversy. Echoes of that are being felt today

JD Vance isn’t the first GOP vice presidential candidate to remark on women’s reproductive choices. We look back at when then-Vice President Dan Quayle rebuked the TV character Murphy Brown.

The fervor over GOP vice presidential nominee JD Vance’s now-infamous “childless cat ladies” remark had barely died down when Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders fanned the flames again. “My kids keep me humble,” Sanders said at a September 17 campaign event for Donald Trump in Flint, Michigan. “Unfortunately, Kamala Harris doesn’t have anything keeping her humble.” As with Vance’s “cat ladies” dig, many women were outraged that Sanders would criticize Vice President Harris for not having biological children (and that she would disregard Harris’ two stepchildren). Even some conservatives attempted to distance themselves from the comments, with one senior Trump campaign adviser saying he was “offended” and “disappointed” by them. It’s too soon to tell what impact, if any, these statements will have on Trump’s third bid for the White House. But there’s reason to believe they might alienate some women — a demographic that Trump already struggles with. Polls show that Democrats have an edge with women, and that advantage increases significantly when it comes to younger and unmarried female voters. The public discourse over “childless cat ladies” and Sanders’ latest remark evokes a similar political controversy in US history, in which another Republican leader uttered a statement about women’s reproductive choices that would go on to haunt his campaign. The year was 1992: Then-President George H.W. Bush was running for a second term, and the eponymous protagonist of the TV sitcom “Murphy Brown” gave birth to a child she decided to raise as a single mother. What would have been two entirely unrelated events were then forever entwined when Vice President Dan Quayle decried the fictional character in a campaign speech.