No, Project 2025 doesn’t call for repealing women’s right to vote

The VERIFY team has been fact-checking claims about Project 2025, an initiative launched in April 2022 by The Heritage Foundation. The plan provides a roadmap for the next conservative president to transform the government in favor of conservative social policies and ideals. 

We’ve received a number of texts from readers asking us if it’s true that Project 2025 calls for taking away women’s right to vote. 

THE QUESTION

Does Project 2025 call for repealing women’s right to vote?

THE SOURCES

• “Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise,” published by The Heritage Foundation, the conservative think tank behind Project 2025
• The Heritage Foundation
• The Daily Wire’s “The Michael Knowles Show”

THE ANSWER

No, Project 2025 doesn’t call for repealing women’s right to vote. 

WHAT WE FOUND

Neither Project 2025 nor the Heritage Foundation have called for women’s right to vote to be taken away. “Mandate for Leadership: A Conservative Promise," which outlines the plan for Project 2025, doesn’t mention limiting eligible voters’ rights or the 19th Amendment, which granted women the right to vote.

In fact, The Heritage Foundation, the think tank behind Project 2025, has posted blog posts on its website celebrating the 19th Amendment and the women’s suffrage movement.

A video posted by President Joe Biden’s re-election campaign about Project 2025 may have contributed to the confusion around this topic. 

“Planner of Trump’s Project 2025 calls for repealing the 19th Amendment, which gave women the right to vote,” a June 8 X post by @BidenHQ  says. 

The 16-second video, which features two short clips edited together, shows Project 2025 Senior Advisor John McEntee during a guest appearance on "The Michael Knowles Show." The show is aired online by The Daily Wire, a conservative news website and media company.  In one clip, McEntee can be heard joking, “I think this video has made me rethink the 19th Amendment.”

In the second clip, McEntee says, “No actual American girl that grew up in a traditional, normal American family wants a guy that goes to the womens” before the video ends abruptly.

VERIFY found the original video that was used to create the one posted by the Biden campaign. It comes from an episode posted on YouTube on May 4. The title of the YouTube video is “Michael REACTS to Dating Gone WRONG with John McEntee.”

We watched the episode and found the portions showing McEntee making the statements used in the Biden campaign video. Knowles and McEntee were talking during a segment titled “Conservative Men” about online dating while mocking videos posted to social media. McEntee referenced the 19th Amendment as a joke.

Here's the full transcript of the exchange between Knowles and McEntee. The words in bold are what was used in the Biden campaign video.

Knowles, at 12:38 in the video: “Ninety-nine percent of women do not want some guy to just roll over the minute, they, I think…” 

McEntee: “I don’t, yeah, I think, as well, I think this video has made me rethink the 19th Amendment, but keep going.” 

[Social media video about dating apps plays]

Knowles: “Please pause, please pause, the voice is just so, sorry, I, usually I’m much more put together, and there is just something about this … It’s this monotone that just never ends. It gets worse and worse. And keep going. 

[Social media video about dating apps plays]

Knowles: The way that woman speaks … I couldn’t even. What was her point?”

McEntee: “Her point was that the liberal men are doing better on the [dating] apps and the conservative guys should take note and it’s like, number one, I don’t even believe that. You know, no actual American girl that grew up in a, you know, traditional normal American family wants a guy that goes to the women’s march.”

Throughout the whole episode, McEntee doesn’t mention Project 2025.

This story is also available in Spanish / Lee este artículo también en español:  No, el Proyecto 2025 no sugiere derogar el derecho al voto de las mujeres