A record number of women are running for president in 2020, but Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., said she still receives questions about whether a female candidate can win.
“The question that I get asked that I’ve never heard a man asked is ‘Can a woman win?’ But I’ve never heard anyone ask a guy, ‘Can a man win?’” Warren said in a video released Thursday promoting a feature in Marie Claire. The magazine interviewed the five female members of Congress who have announced they’re vying for the Democratic nomination in a piece headlined “One of These Women Could Be Our Next President: Call it the final stage of the resistance.”
Warren wasn’t the only woman to claim she’s received questions doubting her abilities. Iraq War veteran Rep. Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii also weighed in.
“Are you tough enough? Can you handle the heat?” Gabbard, who announced her candidacy in January, said she gets asked.
Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York and Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota said they get asked how they juggle their families along with running their campaigns and their careers.
“The truth is,” said Gillibrand, who formally unveiled her presidential campaign in January, “women have been working since the beginning of time, and we do it well. We can balance our family needs and the work we need to do.”
Former prosecutor Sen. Kamala Harris of California said she changes the course of the conversation when she receives questions about “women’s issues.”
“My response is usually ‘I am so glad you would like to talk about women’s issues, so let’s talk about the economy.’” Harris said.
When people say they want to talk about women’s issues, my response is always, “I’m so glad you want to talk about the economy!”
With a historic number of Democratic women running for president, I hope all women know the sky’s the limit. ?: @marieclaire pic.twitter.com/VBHIUx3imf
— Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) February 21, 2019
More Democratic women, six, have launched 2020 presidential campaigns than their male counterparts so far. The five male announced candidates include Sens. Cory Booker of New Jersey and Bernie Sanders of Vermont.
Democratic 2016 presidential candidate Hillary Clinton was the first woman to secure a major party’s nomination. Although Clinton won the popular vote in the 2016 election, she received only 232 electoral votes and lost to now-President Trump by 74 electoral votes.
