That’s a serious question being asked in American politics right now, as memories of Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign linger and Elizabeth Warren goes up against frontrunners Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden for the Democratic nomination and the right to directly challenge Trump for the presidency.
But Warren personally confronted the topic head on during the Democratic Debate Tuesday, when she declared that it was only women on the stage who had won every election they’d contested.
The issue has come up following claims that Sanders had personally raised concerns with Warren about whether a woman can win against Trump.
When Sanders was asked whether this was true during the debate he denied it, saying it would have been “incomprehensible” to share such a view. He noted Hillary Clinton had won the popular vote by 3 million votes and asked, “How could anybody in a million years not believe that a woman could become president of the United States?”
When Warren was asked to respond, her comments drew cheers from the room.
“This question about whether or not a woman can be president has been raised and I think it’s time to attack it head on. I think the best way to talk about who can win is by looking at peoples’ winning record.
So, can a woman beat Donald Trump?
“Look at the men on this stage. Collectively, they have lost 10 elections. The only people on this stage who have won every single election that they’ve been in are the women. Amy (Klobuchar) and me.”
That’s when the crowd cheered, with Klobuchar commenting, “it’s true”.
Warren continued. “And the only person who has beaten a Republican in the past 30 years, is me.”
“We need a candidate who will excite all parts of the Democratic party, bring everyone in and give everyone a Democrat to believe in. That’s my plan and that is why I’m going to win.”
At the end of the debate, there were suggestions that Warren had rejected Sanders’ attempt at a handshake. Instead, they shared what looked to be some stern words, before walking off in different directions. That came despite Warren commenting during the debate that, “Bernie’s a friend, and I’m not here to fight with Bernie.”
The question of whether a woman can win the 2020 Presidential race has been one shared by US political commentators who claim that even Democrats who hope to see a woman win the candidacy are quietly expressing concerns about whether she’ll be successful against Trump. Warren was directly asked at a Town Hall meeting in 2019 about the idea of getting “Hillary-d” and held to a higher standard than her opponent.
As a New York Times piece on the issue started: “Some people whisper it, some apologize for it, and some are very careful to mention their neighbors — their neighbors would be the ones to ask.
“Do you really think a woman could be elected president?”
“Privately, Democratic strategists, candidates and officials say they’ve been alarmed by how deeply doubts about female electability have taken hold.
There were six candidates on the Democratic debate stage, including Warren, Sanders, Biden, Klobuchar, Pete Buttigieg and Tom Steyer. They spoke on everything from healthcare to foreign policy, including the Middle East, with Warren declaring she did not support pulling out troops.