The Truth About Female Presidential Candidates
Is the Democratic Party, the party that claims to speak on behalf of women, sexist? According to many, the answer appears to be “yes” and the proof can be seen in the demise of Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren’s presidential campaign.
Neglected in such talk, however is the realization that Warren ran a bad campaign and was plagued by many issues. She has a problematic relationship with the truth and flip-flopping on Medicare-for-All doomed her. It’s also pretty hard to get off the ground when your key constituencies are journalists, professors, and Twitter users. Her sex was the least of her problems. The same is true for Amy Klobuchar, Kamala Harris, Kirsten Gillibrand, and Tulsi Gabbard.
The proof can be seen in that none of the people lamenting the downfall of Warren’s campaign are rallying to Gabbard to salvage the idea of electing the first female president.
According to an NBC/WSJ poll released in February that only 14% of Americans would have a problem with female candidates. By comparison, 27% say the same for gay and lesbian candidates.
But, you would never know it listening to the left and certain journalists. According to a Ispos/Daily Beast poll released last June, only 33% of Democrats and independents believe their neighbors would be comfortable with a female president.
In other words, Americans have no problem with the idea of a female president, they just have not met the right one yet, but those Americans who electing a female president for its own sake is a big deal, believe Americans do have a problem with the idea of a female president.
I’m not usually one to defend Democratic voters, especially now since the accusations of being sexists is the shoe that is now on the other foot, but it is clear they now think Joe Biden is their best hope to kick President Trump out of the White House. Bernie Sanders has support because he has ideas. Warren has ideas too, but Sanders is seen as the true believer and Warren is more of a late arrival. Democratic voters simply have more immediate concerns.
There’s a very real chance in 2024 that the Republicans nominate a woman. It’s always a fool’s errand to try to predict the outcome of an election four-and-a-half years away, but it’s impossible to ignore the possibilities.
Nikki Haley stands out as an obvious possibility. Haley is an obvious choice who can unify the disparate wings of the Trump divide within conservatism, especially if Trump should lose. She’s a former Governor of South Carolina who rose to who became a loyal ambassador to the rat’s nest that is the United Nations, but showed enough independence to potentially satisfy the more traditionally-minded GOP foreign policy types.
Current Governor and former congresswoman from South Dakota Kristi Noem is another possibility. Noem is more unknown, which could benefit from nobody outside of South Dakota having any strong opinions on her. She’s been a good and loyal Republican, but also blasted Trump’s tariffs which could be appealing to Trump-skeptics or more lukewarm supporters.
Both will be only 52 years old in 2024, which could be appealing after two sexagenarians in 2016 and five septuagenarians in 2020 (Trump, Bloomberg, Biden, Sanders, and Warren).
Others who would not necessarily fit the unity mold, but who could conceivably run in 2024 include Senators Joni Ernest and Marsha Blackburn.
Which Republican males would run in 2024? Mike Pence? Maybe if Trump wins in November, but it’s going to be hard to make the case for Pence 2024 if Trump loses. Do Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio try again? Tom Cotton may jump in, so may Ron DeSantis.
The point is, if Republicans are smart and discourage the vanity campaigns we’ve seen in 2016 from the GOP and in 2020 from Democrats, there is a very real possibility that there could be as many or even more serious female Republican candidates than male.
And nobody currently lamenting the end of Warren 2020 is going to vote for any of them.
Ultimately, there are two types of primary voters: those who consider themselves pragmatists who just want to win and those who want to win, but also want a true believer. In the general election, it’s a Democrat against a Republican and most people vote on that basis.
If you really want a female president, and not just a female president who agrees with you, then the best thing you can do is stop making excuses for the likes of Hillary Clinton and Elizabeth Warren who ran objectively bad campaigns against weak opposition.
