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Vice President Harris and Hillary Clinton embrace at campaign event on Nov. 3, 2022 for New York Gov. Kathy Hochul and Attorney General Letitia James.
“I know this from my own life, people say, ‘What are you?’ and it’s like, can’t I just be me then let’s just talk about what we’re here to talk about?” said Finney. “And I think for her there is a feeling of let’s just focus on the work.”
Clinton’s campaign used her gender to motivate Democrats
Hillary Clinton took a different approach eight years ago, when she was the Democratic nominee. She talked about the women whose shoulders she stood on and the cracks she and her supporters were making in what she called “the highest, hardest glass ceiling.”
But she also spent a lot of time reacting to Trump and his record of sexist insults.
“Whenever I talk about affordable childcare, and paid family leave and equal pay, he says I’m playing the women’s card,” Clinton would say at her rallies. “And you know what I say? If that’s the case, then deal me in.”
The line always generated big applause.
Christina Reynolds worked on Clinton’s campaign and is now at the group Emily’s List, which works to get women elected. She says back then, there were questions about whether America was ready to elect a woman.
The campaign decided to lean into Clinton’s potential to make history, to motivate the Democratic base. That’s not so necessary now, Reynolds said.
“The more women that run, the more we see this at a higher level, the more we know that America has elected to women at all these different positions — the more we can say, ‘Stop centering us in our identity solely and allow us to actually talk about what we’re going to do for America,’” Reynolds said.
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For Harris’ acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention on Aug. 22, 2024, many delegates wore white — a nod to the suffragist movement.
With less than two months left in this campaign, Reynolds says Harris doesn’t have any time to waste. She needs to spend every moment focused on issues voters care about.
Delegates wore white. Harris did not
In 2008, Hillary Clinton often wore white to mark milestone moments in her campaign in honor of the suffragist movement that fought to get women the right to vote in the early 20th century. She accepted the nomination in a white suit.
On the last night of the Democratic convention in Chicago last month, the arena was a sea of white. The delegates had coordinated to dress in white, as a nod to the history that Harris could make. But Harris herself wore a conservative navy blue suit and never once mentioned making history in her speech.
To Debbie Walsh, who heads the Center For American Women and Politics at Rutgers University, this approach has echoes of former President Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign. With the exception of one memorable speech, Obama didn’t make his racial identity part of his campaign pitch. He was running to be president, not the first Black president.
“He did not talk about the fact that, ‘If I’m elected president, I will be the first Black president of the United States.’ We all knew it,” Walsh said.
“He was disrupting the image of who can be president of the United States and he did that successfully,” Walsh said, noting that like Obama, Harris doesn’t have to talk about being a woman of color for everyone to know she would make history if she wins.
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