CHICAGO – They’re still wearing suffragist white outfits and cheering for the possibility of a “Mrs. President.”
But eight years after Hillary Clinton became the first woman to lead a major party’s presidential nomination, Democrats are sending American women a more sober and urgent message, even as they try to elect another barrier-breaking candidate.
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They argue that Republican policies have had devastating and once unimaginable consequences for the health and autonomy of women and their families since the overturning of Roe v. Wade. They warn that a second term for former President Donald Trump would be even more dangerous.
“Simply put,” Vice President Kamala Harris said last week on the stage at her party’s convention, “they’re out of their minds.”
From women describing painful pregnancies and medical struggles to Harris’s Thursday night, the tone and emphasis was a radical departure from the optimistic feminism and “I’m with her” chants that dominated Clinton’s 2016 campaign.
“This is a time when women’s rights are fundamentally under threat as it relates to abortion, IVF, when and how to start a family,” said Sen. Laphonza Butler of California, a close Harris ally. “It’s not about minimizing the importance of race or gender. It’s about appreciating that at this moment in our country’s history, this election is bigger than anyone’s race or gender.”
Much of what has transpired over the past eight years was incomprehensible to Democrats clinging to their enthusiasm for the Clinton campaign. The idea that Trump — a man who had bragged about sexual assault — would win and that his Supreme Court nominees would help eliminate the constitutional right to abortion seemed far-fetched.
“In 2016, people felt they had the luxury of equality in the law and reproductive freedom in the law, and I think a lot of people didn’t see the risk in front of them,” said Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, DN.Y.
The Supreme Court’s decision to wipe out Roe two years ago triggered widespread abortion bans in many states across the country. Democrats quickly harnessed the shock and outrage over the decision into political momentum in key races that year and beyond. At last week’s convention, Democrats offered the clearest signs yet of how central the issue will be to their fall campaign.
“The rollback of our rights has been so harsh and aggressive in red states across the country that there has been a wake-up call,” Gillibrand said. The senator, who ran in the 2020 campaign on a message anchored on women’s equality issues, said the moment called for a “fighter,” adding of Harris, “It doesn’t matter that she’s a woman, to be honest. . . It matters that she is fighter. And it’s great that she also happens to be a woman.”
Several speakers also openly and subtly emphasized Harris’ history-making potential. Harris is already the first black woman and the first person of South Asian descent to accept the nomination of a major party. If elected, she would be the first female president in US history.
Clinton saw Harris’ offer as a continuation of her efforts to shatter what she has called the “tallest and toughest glass ceiling.”
“On the other side of that glass ceiling is Kamala Harris raising her hand and being sworn in as the 47th president of the United States,” Clinton told a cheering crowd on Monday.
But Harris herself doesn’t subscribe to such an explicit message, preferring subtle references to being encouraged as a child to “be anything and do anything,” as she put it last week.
When he formally accepted his party’s nomination Thursday night, he said he did so “on behalf of every American, regardless of party, race, gender, or the language your grandmother speaks.”
For some voters, representation is a powerful and energizing motivator. Others give up on the identity discussion.
“Sometimes I feel like when you talk about ‘first lady,’ it’s like ‘first lady’ becomes the focus,” said Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle Parker, the first woman to lead the city. “That’s extremely important. But don’t forget the work that went into making sure he can be ready to face all the possibilities.
Many Democratic women credit Clinton’s candidacy with helping Americans understand what a female presidential candidate might look and sound like, giving Harris room to define herself more broadly this time around. (Of course, Clinton — a former first lady, senator and secretary of state — hardly reduced her campaign to gender.)
“The focus today is, it seems to be a conversation about a much more holistic view of identity, and I think that’s important for the country,” said Gov. Maura Healey, first lady and first openly LGBTQ+. The Massachusetts governor-elect, who also stressed that “representation is really important.”
He added that Clinton broke the glass ceiling.
In a campaign where Trump, a white man, has already tried to question Harris’ racial identity, Democrats are bracing for sexist and racist attacks on Harris.
Last week, Michelle Obama, the former first lady, warned her party against complacency, saying there are many “who are ready to question and criticize Kamala’s every move, who are eager to spread those lies who don’t want to vote for a woman.”
“We can’t stand worrying that this country will elect someone like Kamala, instead of doing everything we can to get someone like Kamala elected,” he said.
So far, Trump has struggled to push a consistent and effective message against Harris, but leading Democrats don’t trust him to last.
At least on Friday, Trump — who relies on the support of social conservatives and has said he was “proudly responsible” for overturning Roe v. Wade — appeared to acknowledge that Democrats had put him on abortion rights. in defense.
“My administration,” she insisted to Truth Social, “is great for women and their reproductive rights.”
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