Sen. Elizabeth Warren was the first and Rep. Tulsi Gabbard came soon after. Now we have Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand and Sen. Kamala Harris announcing, with Sen. Amy Klobuchar rumored to be not far behind. Are we following up a ‘women’s wave’ election with a women’s wave primary — and can that be the first step towards finally getting a woman in the White House?
With California Senator Kamala Harris the latest to make her candidacy official, we now have four women in the candidate pool for 2020 — and more potentially on the way. That has advocacy groups — especially those who lean towards or only endorse female candidates — extremely excited about the new trend.
And unlike 2016 when left-leaning political groups chose an early favorite, this time they aren’t at all eager to narrow the pool down early. According to the Associated Press:
NARAL Pro-Choice America’s president, Ilyse Hogue, said the abortion rights group has made no firm decision about whether to eventually back one or more Democratic hopefuls and that “we see it as a plus, not a minus, if we haven’t endorsed by the Iowa caucus” because it means that members see multiple candidates supporting their goals.
The number of women announcing presidential intentions is already historic, according to CNN — but will that make it easier or harder for a woman to actually become the eventual nominee? It’s difficult to say — especially with many of them currently low in the polls among potential Democratic primary voters. But much of that uncertainty could go away once the candidates are better known. After all, the electorate is enthusiastic about voting for women right now.
Harry Enten writes:
Women candidates dominated in 2016 and 2018 Democratic primaries. Hillary Clinton won the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination. Over 50% of women who ran in Democratic House primaries won in 2018. In fact, more women were nominated in Democratic House primaries than ever before.
It’s not just that women are winning. It seems that they are winning in part because Democratic voters want to vote for women. A CBS News poll taken in 2015 found that when Clinton voters were asked during the primary to give their most important reason for backing her, the second most popular answer was “it’s time for a woman president.” A FiveThirtyEight analysis found that even controlling for other factors, being a woman was one of the best indicators of whether a candidate won a 2018 congressional Democratic primary.
Ironically, despite an overwhelming number of female candidates to choose from, Democrats seem alarmingly inconsistent when it comes to recognizing why a woman should be the next nominee. And that’s troubling if Democrats hope to defeat President Donald Trump during the 2020 race.
According to a new poll commissioned by The Hill, only a little more than half of Democratic voters said it would be important to have a woman at the top of the ticket — either as president or vice president — and just 27 percent said it was important for a woman to be the presidential nominee.
That number drops even lower when considering all voters. The Hill reports:
Women were more interested in seeing a female nominee, but a majority did not consider it essential. Fifty-nine percent of them said it wouldn’t be important for the party to choose a woman for president or vice president, while 41 percent said it would be. Sixty-eight percent of male voters said it would not be important to them for Democrats to have a woman on their presidential ticket. Thirty-two percent said it would be valuable to them to see a woman as the party’s presidential or vice presidential pick.
On the bright side, with so many women in the running, there’s a very strong possibility that a woman can get the nomination — regardless of whether a person sees gender equity to be an important factor in picking a candidate. And if that happens, maybe we can finally get a woman into the White House after all.
Truthout Is Preparing to Meet Trump’s Agenda With Resistance at Every Turn
Dear Truthout Community,
If you feel rage, despondency, confusion and deep fear today, you are not alone. We’re feeling it too. We are heartsick. Facing down Trump’s fascist agenda, we are desperately worried about the most vulnerable people among us, including our loved ones and everyone in the Truthout community, and our minds are racing a million miles a minute to try to map out all that needs to be done.
We must give ourselves space to grieve and feel our fear, feel our rage, and keep in the forefront of our mind the stark truth that millions of real human lives are on the line. And simultaneously, we’ve got to get to work, take stock of our resources, and prepare to throw ourselves full force into the movement.
Journalism is a linchpin of that movement. Even as we are reeling, we’re summoning up all the energy we can to face down what’s coming, because we know that one of the sharpest weapons against fascism is publishing the truth.
There are many terrifying planks to the Trump agenda, and we plan to devote ourselves to reporting thoroughly on each one and, crucially, covering the movements resisting them. We also recognize that Trump is a dire threat to journalism itself, and that we must take this seriously from the outset.
After the election, the four of us sat down to have some hard but necessary conversations about Truthout under a Trump presidency. How would we defend our publication from an avalanche of far right lawsuits that seek to bankrupt us? How would we keep our reporters safe if they need to cover outbreaks of political violence, or if they are targeted by authorities? How will we urgently produce the practical analysis, tools and movement coverage that you need right now — breaking through our normal routines to meet a terrifying moment in ways that best serve you?
It will be a tough, scary four years to produce social justice-driven journalism. We need to deliver news, strategy, liberatory ideas, tools and movement-sparking solutions with a force that we never have had to before. And at the same time, we desperately need to protect our ability to do so.
We know this is such a painful moment and donations may understandably be the last thing on your mind. But we must ask for your support, which is needed in a new and urgent way.
We promise we will kick into an even higher gear to give you truthful news that cuts against the disinformation and vitriol and hate and violence. We promise to publish analyses that will serve the needs of the movements we all rely on to survive the next four years, and even build for the future. We promise to be responsive, to recognize you as members of our community with a vital stake and voice in this work.
Please dig deep if you can, but a donation of any amount will be a truly meaningful and tangible action in this cataclysmic historical moment.
We’re with you. Let’s do all we can to move forward together.
With love, rage, and solidarity,
Maya, Negin, Saima, and Ziggy