#glass ceiling

Three Arts Cafe

That may be hyperbolic, but it is true that both female candidates for president were put forth in years with strong headwinds and rough political environments for the democratic party.

Hillary Clinton ran after two consecutive Democratic terms that left voters feeling uneasy about the nation's economic recovery. I don't think it's widely understood how difficult it is to win a third consecutive term for a political party. I think that if a more mainstream Tea Party Republican had been nominated instead of Trump, as was expected, Republicans would've even had a shot at the popular vote. After all, Republicans did win the congressional House popular vote in 2016. When factoring in a strong electoral college bias on top of the general national mood, it was never going to be an easy year for Democrats.

I do acknowledge that if Clinton had run a scrappier campaign with a central narrative more focused on working-class perspectives, she could've won. She was certainly a very flawed candidate, but my point is that 2016 was not a fundamentally easy political environment for Democrats in the first place.

Harris, on the other hand, was quite plainly fed into a wood chipper. It's finally a woman's turn again, just in time for her to enjoy a political environment in which 75% of the country thinks we're on the wrong track, the party's incumbent president has horrible approval ratings, and she has 3 months to catch up to an opposing presidential campaign that has effectively been weaving its narrative for 9 years. 2024 was an awful political environment for Democrats.

Bobby Joe Champion, the President of the Minnesota state senate, would then be Lt. Governor, and the first Black Lt. Governor of Minnesota.