With 650 days to go before the 2020 presidential election, Democratic women have jumped out ahead of all others in hopes of securing their party’s nomination.
Politics
Not long after the nation rang in 2019, Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts announced her candidacy for the presidency. Soon after, New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand declared her intentions for The White House. Then, this week on the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, African-American Sen. Kamala Harris revealed that she too seeks the Oval Office.
Now, the question on everyone’s mind is: can any of them actually win? Let’s take a look.
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SEN. ELIZABETH WARREN
When Hillary Clinton secured the Democratic nomination 3 years ago, many believed it was Sen. Elizabeth Warren who should have been the first woman to receive a major party nomination and to make a run for the presidency. Oh, how times have changed.
According to FiveThirtyEight.com:
Warren’s star has dimmed in recent months. President Trump’s repeated references to her as “Pocahontas” have kept alive a seven-year-old controversy over Warren’s claims that she has Native American ancestry, which potentially helped advance her career. Her release of a DNA test in October 2018 that she hoped would settle the matter was not well received. And in a party reportedly thirsty for a new generation of leadership, the 69-year-old Warren may have missed her window.
The theory here is that even IF Sen. Warren can beat out all the other Democratic women and men for the nomination, she will almost certainly not be able to beat Donald Trump (if the Mueller investigation hasn’t already ended his chances).
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SEN. KIRSTEN GILLIBRAND
Since joining the US Senate in 2009, Sen. Gillibrand has represented a conservative region of northern New York State. Not surprisingly, many of her positions have leaned far to the right, including her position on gun rights. Interestingly, the senator has frequently called many of Donald Trump’s policies on immigration and more “racist.” However, a quick look into her past shows that she once championed many of those very policies she now calls racist.
So, the question is not if she can win the presidency, but if she can convince her own party that she is the best candidate among Democratic women and is deserving of the nomination.
Gillibrand’s primary play lies with women voters, who make up almost 60% of the Democratic base. She has long made issues affecting women a centerpiece of her policy portfolio. Starting during the Obama administration, Gillibrand pushed to reform how the military handles instances of sexual assault in its ranks and consistently introduced bills for paid family leave during her tenure in the Senate. Her advocacy for women also broke through in a politically explosive way in 2017, when she was the first Democratic senator to call for fellow Democrat Sen. Al Franken to resign after allegations that he had groped women emerged.
Seemingly, her only road to victory is through women voters who believe she is their best chance to break through the glass ceiling and become the first female Commander-In-Chief.
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SEN. KAMALA HARRIS
As the child of Jamaican and Indian parents, Sen. Harris is already being dubbed the frontrunner among Democratic women and all others. Chris Cillizza of CNN believes the March 1st primary in South Carolina (which traditionally has a 50-60% voter turnout and an extremely large African-American electorate) could place the California senator too far ahead of the pack to be denied.
Even Fox News weighed in on her electability as a powerful, African-American woman:
Conventional wisdom on the left is that Hillary Clinton failed to match the African-American turnout that Barack Obama generated. With Harris, the Democratic nominee would be a ‘two-fer” – a candidate who would appeal to feminists and minorities alike and drive turnout up.
Could one of these Democratic women be the future President of the United States?
OK WASSUP! discusses Politics:
Democratic women lead the 2020 presidential election.
Been trying to get to this post all morning….a bit busy here at my job but I finally got a little free time. While I’m happy to see a significant number of women running for offices at all levels (local, state and federal) across this country…running for president is like running for no other office. It’s a whole other kind of animal to tackle. And either you’re fully up to the task….or you’re not. DJ asked: “Now, the question on everyone’s mind is: can any of them actually win?” Umm…No…I don’t think so. Certainly not the presidency. And given that I don’t believe ANY of them can defeat Trump, I certainly hope none of them wins the nomination. I know- it’s early and there plenty of time to give candidates a fair hearing and consideration. But I’ve already heard several female candidates do interviews (Warren, Harris, Gillibrand, Gabbard et al)… Read more »