The security mom is the latest in a series of swing groups identified during recent presidential election campaigns. Its origins lie in the term soccer mom, an expression which emerged during the 1996 campaign to refer to a white suburban woman who is married with children (from the suburban ideal of a mother who regularly supports her children at soccer matches). In the mid-term elections of 1998, the soccer mom gave way to the waitress mom, a married woman with children, working in a low-paid job. In the 2000 presidential election, there was a more general focus on the WMWM, an abbreviation for White Married Working Mom. However, with the terrorist attacks of September 11th in the following year, the WMWM soon became the white married mother who was disproportionately worried about the threat of terrorism, subsequently known as the security mom.

The security mom is the latest in a series of swing groups identified during recent presidential election campaigns. Its origins lie in the term soccer mom, an expression which emerged during the 1996 campaign to refer to a white suburban woman who is married with children (from the suburban ideal of a mother who regularly supports her children at soccer matches). In the mid-term elections of 1998, the soccer mom gave way to the waitress mom, a married woman with children, working in a low-paid job. In the 2000 presidential election, there was a more general focus on the WMWM, an abbreviation for White Married Working Mom. However, with the terrorist attacks of September 11th in the following year, the WMWM soon became the white married mother who was disproportionately worried about the threat of terrorism, subsequently known as the security mom.