Kamala Harris’ loss in the race for president has some wondering if the US is ready for a woman president. Debbie Walsh isn’t one of them. The director of Rutgers’ Center for American Women and Politics said the problem is not that women aren’t electable. She said we can see that right here in the Garden State.
“Nellie Pou, state senator who is now elected to serve in the US House of Representatives, is the first Latina to serve in New Jersey’s Congressional delegation,” said Walsh. “And we have a record four women who will be serving at the same time from the state of New Jersey.”
And nationally, Walsh said no one should interpret Harris’ loss to mean the US is cool to the idea of a woman in the White House.
“This country is absolutely ready for a woman president,” said Walsh. “I will just remind everybody that in 2016 Hillary Clinton won the popular vote so we know that Americans are capable and ready to pull the lever for a woman who’s running for president.”
Harris pinned her hopes for the presidency on the Blue Wall states of Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan, but won none of those states. Walsh said one of them may be a stretch for a female candidate.
“Pennsylvania has never elected a woman governor, never elected a woman to the United States Senate, but Wisconsin has, Tammy Baldwin is currently serving as a US senator from the state of Wisconsin,” she said. “And Michigan has a woman governor, has a woman secretary of state, has a woman attorney general.”
In 2016 Hillary Clinton narrowly lost these three states, costing her the presidency.