Vice President Kamala Harris could become the U.S.'s first female president, which many had hoped Hillary Clinton would have been, but Harris hasn't been playing that up.
Harris, who is likely to become the Democratic nominee next month, is set to make history if elected in November. However, it's a talking point she has largely avoided since President Joe Biden withdrew from the presidential race on Sunday, and one that Clinton had hinged her 2016 campaign on.
When Clinton launched her campaign at a June 2015 rally in New York, she began her speech by saying it was "wonderful" to be not only in the state that she represented in the Senate but also "in a place with absolutely no ceilings."
A year later, as she accepted the Democratic Party's nomination, she said: "Tonight, we've reached a milestone in our nation's march toward a more perfect union: the first time that a major party has nominated a woman for president.
"Standing here as my mother's daughter, and my daughter's mother, I'm so happy this day has come."
It's a tone Clinton has struck throughout her political career. After dropping out of the 2008 primaries, she said, "Although we weren't able to shatter that highest, hardest glass ceiling this time, thanks to you, it's got about 18 million cracks in it, and the light is shining through like never before."
In her 2016 concession speech, she again addressed the historic miss. "To all the women, and especially the young women, who put their faith in this campaign and in me, I want you to know that nothing has made me prouder than to be your champion," Clinton said.
Harris—who is the first Black, South Asian and female vice president in U.S. history—has previously discussed the historical significance of her position. When she and Biden won the 2020 election, she told the crowd at an election night party, "While I may be the first woman in this office, I will not be the last because every little girl watching tonight sees that this is a country of possibilities."
Her warp-speed campaign launch, however, has not addressed the historic first that Harris could usher in. Instead, she has put her own twist on the campaign that she inherited from Biden, while focusing on the same themes.
On Thursday, Harris' campaign released its first video, in which the Democrat emphasized the theme of freedom and showcased her policies on the economy, gun reform and reproductive rights. She also homed in on, as the Biden campaign did, defeating former President Donald Trump.
"There are some people who think we should be a country of chaos, of fear, of hate," she is heard saying over clips of the Republican nominee. "But us, we chose something different. We choose freedom."
Elsewhere in the video, Harris says, "No one is above the law," as Trump's mug shot and headlines of his indictments and conviction appear.
"Given the danger that a second Trump presidency poses to the future of democracy in the United States, I think that the notion of a 'first' is the last thing on anyone's mind," Nancy J. Hirschmann, a politics and gender studies professor at the University of Pennsylvania, told Newsweek.
Betsy Fischer Martin, the executive director at American University's Women and Politics Institute, agreed. It "makes sense that [Harris'] 106-day campaign would largely be orientated around blocking [Trump's] return to power," she said.
"She will surely tap into enthusiasm about her history-making potential, but I think she will tread carefully because appeals around race and gender cut both ways for the first Black woman to be nominated by a major party," Fischer Martin told Newsweek. "Democrats know that, much like Biden before her, Harris is largely a vessel to stop Trump and Trumpism."
Hirschmann said that while the idea of electing the first female president might not be the leading message for Harris' campaign, the enthusiasm that comes with her candidacy suggests that "people get it. We don't have to make an explicit issue of it."
"There are many substantive issues of vital importance to women that Harris will promote and defend, and Trump will fight against," she said. "That's more important than being a 'first.'"
About the writer
Katherine Fung is a Newsweek reporter based in New York City. Her focus is reporting on U.S. and world politics. ... Read more
