As a female voter, I watched the presidential debate for one specific reason.

It didn’t happen.

I was watching to see if former President Donald Trump would say or do anything that would make Vice President Kamala Harris a plausible case of feminist victimhood.

It could have been a cutting remark about a past personal relationship. Or a condescending tone that sounded as if Trump were mansplaining a woman. Or a facial expression that conveyed contempt, arrogant superiority or, most risky of all, mockery.

If Trump had been caught in even one frame of the video looking disrespectful to a woman, it would likely be on the front page of every newspaper in the country. The clip would be playing continuously on MSNBC from now until the polls close.

But that didn’t happen.

Some commentators after the debate praised Harris’ performance as if she had defeated Trump, and the Harris-Walz campaign released a statement jubilant: “Tonight, Vice President Harris dominated the stage on every issue that matters to the American people.”

Maybe not entirely. The economy, inflation, unchecked illegal immigration, and an unsecured border are issues that matter to the American people. Trump addressed those issues in as many of his answers as possible, regardless of the question.

Likewise, Harris brought up Roe v. Wade and abortion as often as she could.

If you look at the polls, it’s clear that voters who are concerned about the economy and the border are more likely to vote for Trump. Voters who are concerned about abortion rights are more likely to vote for Harris.

That’s how it’s likely to remain, because of what didn’t happen. Tuesday’s debate didn’t cause a gender-gap uprising in the race. Trump avoided the specific pitfall that is quicksand for male candidates running against women.

In 2000, Congressman Rick Lazio ran against Hillary Clinton for the U.S. Senate seat in New York. Their televised debate, moderated by NBC’s Tim Russert, was combative. Here’s what the New York Times reported about the candidates’ behavior: “Mrs. Clinton was serious; she didn’t smile much. Mr. Lazio, by contrast, pulsed as he smiled; one of Mrs. Clinton’s advisers later suggested he was almost grinning.”

If you watched the debate and wondered why Trump had such a serious frown on his face, it’s probably because every New Yorker remembers that Senate debate, but no one remembers Rick Lazio.

The risk of offending female voters was just one of the pitfalls for the Republican candidate. The moderators allowed Harris, who has repeatedly accused Trump of lying, to repeat falsehoods. The Charlottesville story, for example, has been declared false, even by fact-checking sites unfriendly to conservatives. Trump said the tiki-torch-wielding neo-Nazis and white nationalists at the Charlottesville protest were “to be totally condemned”; he never said they were “fine people.” Trump said Biden’s policies would cause an economic “bloodbath” in the U.S. auto industry, not that there would be a literal “bloodbath” if he didn’t win.

Harris deliberately misled the country, which appears to be the default position of the Biden administration.

But that’s all old news. Biden himself rolled out the Charlottesville hoax during his own debate against Trump. It didn’t seem to make a difference. It certainly didn’t save Biden.