Never before in American political history have two presumptive presidential candidates, Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, entered the general election with such soaring high negative numbers.

The result will be an ugly, personalized campaign, rivaling the 1828 election when Andrew Jackson’s minions circulated rumors that incumbent President John Quincy Adams had procured women for Czar Alexander I when Adams was ambassador to Russia. Clinton will try to cement her opponent’s high negatives and Trump will respond in kind. The attacks will be personal on both sides, conducted over the airwaves, social media, and campaign stops.

Clinton brings to her campaign a stack of race and gender identity cards she is ready to play. Democrats have released an effective t.v. spot that has women reading from Trump’s statements about women. The counter-puncher Trump called Hillary “an enabler” who allowed her husband to sexually harass (and more) women, while intimidating women who claimed to be victims of her husband. This is the nasty way that both campaigns will chase women votes, but Trump needs to send a positive message as well to win the female vote.

At present, Hilary leads Trump among women by 19 points (54 percent to 35 percent). Trump is viewed unfavorably by 82 percent of Hispanics, and Democrats have launched major voter registration drives in key swing states to increase the Hispanic vote. Trump’s campaign rests on mobilizing white blue collar voters to win Midwestern rust-belt states. It’s arguable that that there are enough of these voters who can be turned out to win a General Election. What is not debatable is that Trump is going to need women voters, blue-collar and suburban women.

Romney won 53 percent of married women, but received just 44 percent of the female vote. Women voters are especially important in winning the suburbs. In Pennsylvania, for example, the suburbs around Philadelphia account for about 15 percent of the state’s vote. These voters tend to be moderate, generally middle-class or above, and don’t necessarily vote Republican. Obama carried these suburbs in 2008, but Romney retook them in 2012. Trump ignores these voters at his own peril. There are probably not enough white male blue-collar Independents and Democrats in the western part of the state for him to carry Pennsylvania without the Philadelphia suburbs.

Trump needs the female vote to win the General Election. Women currently account for the majority of the electorate. The question facing his campaign is how to win this vote after his slew of offensive remarks about women. His aggressive style of campaigning has further turned off many female voters. Claiming that women love him and that he has promoted women to high positions within the Trump business empire is not going to be enough. He needs to bring forward a more positive message about how he will address issues that most concern women: job creation, energy, and education. He should project that he will make American great again for them and their kids. Americans, male and females, are not just concerned about their current economic status. They are concerned also about their children’s future.

The manufacturing sector still accounts for close to a quarter of the national GDP. Manufacturing payrolls, however, fell by 5.7 million jobs between 2000 and 2010. Most of this decline has come because of automation, not outsourcing. Trump is correct when he points to the enormous trade deficit in American manufacturing. Trade with China accounts for about 40 percent of the decline in manufacturing employment. In the service industry, America runs a surplus, but this sector is being challenged as well in the global economy.

Currently, cheap Asian labor has an advantage, but lower manufacturing costs in the United States encourages production to return to the United States. While most of the old-time assembly jobs are going to be fewer, new technology will lower manufacturing costs and create new opportunities for workers. America has gained a real advantage in the energy sector. Low energy invites energy-intensive sectors such as chemicals and plastics back to the United States. This return would result in about one million new jobs in manufacturing. Technological advances in biomedical, pharmaceutical, chemical and electronic sectors will enable American to remain globally competitive. Lowering America’s corporate tax rate, the highest of any competing economy (39 percent), will further encourage job growth.

Women now constitute the majority of middle-management positions and have entered into many top corporate jobs. This will only increase in coming years as more women attain college educations. The majority of college students are women, and a higher proportion of female Hispanic women are entering college than the proportion of white males with high-school degrees. These women, those entering the work force and female professionals, should be natural Republican voters.

Mothers and fathers are worried about the future of their children. Public school education is broken. American youth are not being prepared for a globally competitive economy. A 2015 study by the Education Testing Service, comparing literacy, numeracy, and problem solving among students in 22 countries, revealed the crisis of American education:

American millennials rank near the bottom in literacy..

They ranked lowest in numeracy, math problems solving.

American youth ranked near last in reasoning skills.

It’s just not the children in poor schools that are underperforming. American youth in the top 90 percent performed more poorly than did their counterparts in nearly every other country.

The 2016 election is not going to be policy-driven. Trump needs more than rhetoric about Making America Great Again to win this election. He needs stick some bones into his rhetoric. By talking about job growth and education reform, he has an opportunity to win blue-collar male voters, as well as earning the trust of women voters. Otherwise the gender-gap will widen for the Republicans, and Hillary Clinton (and Bill) will reenter the White House.

Donald T. Critchlow is a professor of History at Arizona State University and author of Future Right: Forging a New Republican Majority, published by St. Martin’s Press.