Is America ready to have its first female president in history?

(Dan Tri) - Support for Democratic candidate Kamala Harris is growing, but the question is whether Americans are ready to elect the first female president.

Since President Joe Biden dropped out of the presidential race on July 21 and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris as the Democratic presidential nominee, she has enjoyed a strong showing. On August 20, she officially accepted the Democratic presidential nomination to face former Republican President Donald Trump in November. Harris has quickly raised hundreds of millions of dollars in less than a month, taking a lead over Trump in national and swing-state polls. Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, have also drawn tens of thousands of supporters to recent rallies in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan, Arizona and Nevada. While things could change dramatically over the next two months, there is a real chance that Americans will elect their first female president.

Gender factor

According to The Conversation , in surveys conducted by this news site in August, gender factors still have a certain impact on voters. In 2016, the Democratic Party placed high hopes on former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, hoping that she would be the first female president of the United States. According to The Conversation , experts said that gender factors were considered one of the reasons why Mrs. Clinton lost to Republican billionaire Donald Trump. Nearly a decade later, there have been hopes that Americans will be more supportive of women in leadership roles. According to The Conversation's nationwide survey of 11,000 participants, 51% agreed that "America is ready to have the first African-American female president". Only 23% of participants disagreed. On the other hand, according to observers, Mr. Trump's harsh attitude when attacking Ms. Harris personally could create an advantage for the vice president with wavering voter groups. In recent times, even Trump's allies have expressed concern as he has increasingly used strong words to criticize Harris, but not related to her agenda. For example, he called her "low IQ" and said that she was not as beautiful as him. Republicans have called Trump to focus on criticizing Harris' policies rather than attacking her personally. These statements come in the context of American public opinion, especially Democratic voters, increasingly concerned about women's rights. The US Supreme Court issued a historic ruling two years ago, ending the right to abortion under the Constitution, a move that caused a strong reaction from public opinion. According to USA Today , Trump's criticism has contributed to influencing the group of Democratic voters who have shown their determination to vote for Harris. "We fought for Hillary, but now is the moment, the hour, the moment, and we're going to seize every minute," Mary Whipple-Lue, the former mayor of Gordon, Georgia, urged voters to vote for Harris.

US Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz attend a campaign rally in Milwaukee, Wisconsin (Photo: Reuters).

However, according to The Hill , gender factors can still be seen as a barrier to Ms. Harris's presidency. A Times/SAY24 YouGov poll of 1,170 voters found that 54% of respondents said they were ready for a female president and 30% said they were not ready. The 54% figure may seem quite large because it represents more than half, but in fact, it is 9% lower than the Economist/YouGov survey in 2015, when Ms. Clinton announced her candidacy. At that time, 63% of respondents believed that the US was ready for a female president. In addition, 41% of voters said that more than half of Americans would not vote for a woman instead of a man if the two candidates were equally qualified. Among Democrats, while 77% of respondents said the country was ready for a female president, 37% thought other Americans would not vote for an equally qualified woman if she ran against a man. These concerns are said to have led 35% of Democrats to believe that Ms. Harris should pick a man as her running mate, and only 6% to support her choosing a woman as her running mate. On the other hand, Ms. Harris’s strong support among Democrats is unquestionable. However, among Republicans and undecided voters, The Conversation points out that their research shows that gender still plays a significant role in their decision to vote for whom. However, according to Deloris Hudson, an Ohio delegate at the Democratic National Convention, Ms. Hillary’s defeat to Mr. Trump in 2016 created a boost for the role of women in American politics . It spurred a record number of female candidates to run in 2018. Currently, 28.5% of the House of Representatives are women, compared to 19.1% in 2017, according to the Pew Research Center. Meanwhile, over the past 10 years, according to data from the University of Chicago's National Opinion Research Center, the percentage of Americans who believe men are better suited to politics than women has steadily declined. Harris herself is a woman making history. She was the first woman, the first Asian American, and the first African American to be elected vice president of the United States in 2020. At the time, the American media called her a "barrier breaker." This year, she became the first woman of color and the first Asian American to be nominated by a major political party.

Harris's unconventional path

US President Joe Biden and Ms. Kamala Harris appeared on the first day of the Democratic National Convention (DNC) in Chicago, Illinois (Photo: Reuters).

According to experts, although gender is still a factor that has a certain impact on the views of American voters, Ms. Harris's campaign does not seem to use "this card" for this year's election. Although Ms. Harris's allies have repeatedly said that she has faced deep sexism throughout her political career, the US Vice President has tried to focus on other aspects, instead of emphasizing that she is a woman. Mallory McMorrow, a Michigan state senator, said that Ms. Harris seemed to do this intentionally. "America now has more female politicians than before, so I think we don't need to mention the gender issue anymore," Ms. McMorrow said. Politico also had a similar opinion. Unlike Ms. Clinton 9 years ago, Ms. Harris did not emphasize her own characteristics such as being a woman, being black, being Asian. Instead, her message was about her middle-class upbringing and background in law enforcement. “Frankly, talking about how I’m the first black person this way, I’m the first that way, doesn’t get you anywhere,” said former Illinois Sen. Carol Moseley Braun. “It puts you in a corner and opens you up to being accused by your opponent of playing the race card. Harris chose not to do that, and I think that was smart.” Moseley Braun said times have changed “and people are more open to women in politics,” so emphasizing her female identity is unnecessary. What Harris seems to be trying to do is demonstrate that, regardless of her gender, she is ready for the job of American leader because of her skills, knowledge, and experience, not because she’s a woman or because she wants to make history.

Ms. Harris and Mr. Obama at an event in 2022 (Photo: Reuters).

According to Politico, Ms. Harris’s strategy seems to have more in common with former President Barack Obama’s campaign than with Ms. Hillary’s. In 2008, Mr. Obama avoided talking much about his race even as he benefited from the support of the African-American community. Instead, he spent much of his time talking to a broader constituency, such as white voters in battleground states like Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan. There, he convinced them with a clear commitment and agenda, rather than playing the race card. Ms. Harris is taking a similar approach. Her television ads in battleground states talk about her past work as California attorney general, her part-time job at McDonald’s, and her record in public office. Ms. Harris does not shy away from her personal identity as an Asian-American woman, but she is avoiding making it a central focus of her campaign. Harris also seemed uncomfortable when reporters tried to ask her about her gender, race, or ethnicity, saying it was distracting from the focus of her campaign and the values ​​she promised to bring.

According to Conversation, BBC, Politico

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