Former GOP Alaska Gov. and House candidate Sarah Palin told Newsmax Friday that the surge of women saying they will vote Republican in the midterm elections reflects “mama grizzlies” rising in defense of their families and demanding change.

“I think of it more as a bunch of mama grizzlies out there looking to support and defend that next generation, and we will rear up on our hind legs and we will do anything that we can to defend our cubs,” Palin said during “Eric Bolling: The Balance” Friday. “That’s what you see reflected in the polls, and you will certainly see this on Tuesday: that reflection of a mindset that has changed.”

Palin was responding to a Wall Street Journal report Thursday that found a dramatic shift among suburban white women going to the GOP from Democratic support.

“We’re talking about a collapse, if you will, in that group on the perceptions of the economy,” Republican pollster Tony Fabrizio, who conducted the poll with Democratic pollster John Anzalone, told the publication.

Palin said that in addition to the economic issues, women throughout the country — especially parents — are concerned with what is being taught in the nation’s schools and the move to transition children’s genders with medicine and surgery.

“These are frontline issues for a mom when we go to, say, a high school ballgame and we see boys wanting to compete on the girls’ team against the girls; and we say, ‘Wait. Something’s askew with that. No. We don’t want that to happen. We’re actually living what the problem is, and we want to fix the problem.'”