Kamala Harris raised the issue of sexism in politics almost immediately after word ricocheted around Congress that Elizabeth Warren was quitting the 2020 Democratic presidential primary race.
Warren, 70, once a front-runner for the party’s White House nomination, told aides Thursday morning she was suspending her campaign after poor showings in the first four early-voting states and Super Tuesday. Harris, 55, bowed out in November after polls suggested she would struggle to be viable for delegates in the Iowa caucuses.
“I think that that we all know, and this election cycle in particular has also presented very legitimate questions about the challenges of women running for president of the United States,” the California senator told reporters on Capitol Hill of her Massachusetts colleague Thursday.
“The reality is that there’s still a lot of work to be done to make it very clear that women are exceptionally qualified and capable of being the commander in chief of the United States of America,” she added.
NEW from Sen. @KamalaHarris on Elizabeth Warren: “I think she is an incredible leader, and I have nothing but praise for her. Adds: “This election cycle in particular has also presented very legitimate questions about the challenges of women running for president.” More: pic.twitter.com/wnIwF6q7FE
— Geoff Bennett (@GeoffRBennett) March 5, 2020
Senator Harris: “I think that that we all know and this election cycle in particular has also presented very legitimate questions about the challenges of women running for president of the United States.“
— Alan He (@alanhe) March 5, 2020
[Previous coverage: Kamala Harris blames campaign struggles on ‘difficulty in imagining’ a black, female president]
Harris hasn’t been quiet about the perceived problems women encounter on the campaign trail. She and Warren were once part of a historically crowded field that boasted a record-breaking number of women. The pack has now dwindled down to only include Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, 38.
“There is a lack of ability or a difficulty in imagining that someone who we have never seen can do a job that has been done, you know, 45 times by someone who is not that person,” she told Axios last October.
In a call informing her team she’d decided to exit the race, Warren praised their efforts, adding she refused to let “disappointment blind me, or you, to what we’ve accomplished.”
“We didn’t reach our goal, but what we have done together — what you have done — has made a lasting difference. It’s not the scale of the difference we wanted to make, but it matters — and the changes will have ripples for years to come,” she said.
