Kamala Harris is not only a woman, she also has Jamaican and Indian roots. The question is: Is America ready not only for a woman, but also for a woman of color as president?
Kamala Harris is in favor of abolishing the tip tax and increasing the minimum wage
Kamala Harris said she supports eliminating the tip tax and raising the minimum wage.
Will a woman be elected president of the United States in 2024? The majority say America is ready for a female president, but will it finally happen? People have doubts.
Last year, one in four American adults in a Pew Research Center poll said it was extremely or very likely that they would see a woman as president in their lifetime. Of course, last year’s thought experiment has morphed into a real-life contest between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump.
Harris is not only a woman, she also has Jamaican and Indian ancestry. The question is: Is America ready not only for a woman, but also for a woman of color as president?
According to a Pew Research Institute survey, the hurdles are significantly higher for black women than for white women. Many opinion pieces were devoted to the idea that our first female president would be a white Republican, but that chance for 2024 was dashed with Nikki Haley’s loss to Trump in the primaries.
Instead, there is an opportunity for a mixed-race Democrat to break that final gender barrier. But it won’t be easy.
We have been studying attitudes toward female candidates for decades and are honored to be the pollsters behind much of the groundbreaking research on this topic conducted by the Barbara Lee Family Foundation. This research has covered a wide range of topics, including: how can female candidates recover from defeat, demonstrate competence in a crisis, run as a surrogate for the top job, and how can they navigate many of the implicit and explicit expectations placed on female candidates..
Female politicians are held to higher standards than men
Simply put, women have to do more than men to prove their qualifications and are held to higher standards of likeability.
If a candidate doesn’t have children, she may face accusations of being a “childless cat lady,” but if she has young children at home, she may face questions about her ability to balance family and career.
If you’ve ever noticed that Harris wears a uniform similar in style to Hillary Clinton’s pantsuit, it’s because women don’t have the luxury of looking like Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., in mittens. Voters expect women to be disciplined on the campaign trail and in office.
Sanders can get away with more than just mittens. Some voters find his aura of curmudgeon to be the core of his appeal. That doesn’t work with women; voters have to like female candidates.
My girl brain is already tired: 5 reasons why Kamala can’t be president that definitely have nothing to do with the fact that she’s a girl!
In focus groups, one of the deadliest comments we heard about Clinton – often from women – was that the 2016 Democratic presidential nominee was “smart.” There would be a pause, and then it would be implied, or sometimes stated outright, that she was hard to relate to or like. Opponents often try to take away a woman’s likeability.
The Trump campaign’s early attack on Harris’ laughter as an object of ridicule largely missed its mark, although more personal attacks are to be expected from a Republican presidential candidate who seems to delight in it. Her response will be crucial.
As a presidential candidate, Barack Obama was conscious of the need to avoid coming across as an “angry black man,” and that is no doubt a concern for Harris’ campaign. Black women – even more so than white women – walk a fine line when it comes to expressing their anger with voters.
That may be why Trump’s recent comment that Harris “accidentally turned black” drew a balanced response that focused on the bigger picture rather than on himself: “The American people deserve a leader who tells the truth, a leader who, when confronted with the facts, does not respond with hostility and anger.”
Kamala Harris must show what she has achieved
Most importantly, Harris must demonstrate that she has the qualifications to be president and provide tangible evidence of her accomplishments. Before coming to Washington DC, she served as California’s attorney general and her accomplishments were well received by voters.
We’re a little surprised by the number of voters who ask us, “What did she do?” It seems like this question is asked more often with Harris because she’s a woman. What do they think the men did as vice president?
The Republicans keep missing opportunities. Trump must emulate Harris on policy issues.
We know that a presidential candidate must prove that she has a good economic plan. According to the work of the Barbara Lee Family Foundation, voters had more doubts about Democratic candidates on economic issues. Women must clearly communicate their economic policies and benefit more from economic validation than men.
When we examined how a lieutenant governor can successfully run for governor in her state, we found that voters wanted to know what she had accomplished and what problems she had solved independently of the governor. They wanted to see her leadership qualities, not just her ability to represent the governor or support him in his goals.
It will be important for Harris to identify issues she has already successfully championed alongside President Joe Biden. She took a more prominent role in defending abortion rights after the Roe v. Wade ruling was overturned and appears more comfortable restoring abortion rights than Biden.
Harris was a prominent presence during Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit to Washington in late July, no doubt to answer questions about her ability to handle foreign relations as commander in chief of the armed forces.
And although Trump has said that if elected, Harris would be a “toy” of world leaders, a majority of voters do not believe that a president’s gender would affect the world’s respect for the United States.
Americans have never seen a woman in the role of commander in chief, making it harder for them to imagine – something the Barbara Lee Foundation calls an “imagination barrier.” Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton came very close in 2016, and as British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher said, “Sometimes you have to fight a battle more than once to win it.”
Celinda Lake, president of Lake Research Partners, was one of two lead pollsters for Joe Biden’s 2020 presidential campaign. She is also a pollster for the Democratic National Committee. Christine Matthews, president of Bellwether Research, is a leading pollster known for her understanding of swing voters, particularly women.
