On "Forbes Newsroom," Kelly Dittmar, director of research for Rutgers' Center for American Women and Politics, sat down with ForbesWomen editor Maggie McGrath to discuss the historic nature of her career.
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NewsTranscript
00:00Now, we talked about the historic nature of her whole career, basically.
00:05She has been the first and the only, as you have said, in a number of offices.
00:09And I want to ask you, Kelly, because you look at women in politics, does it help when
00:14candidates focus on any historic nature of their candidacy?
00:19Or would it be better for her to not focus on how exceptional that is and instead focus
00:25on her prosecutorial career, or her South Asian identity, or some other aspect of who
00:31she is as a person and politician?
00:34Yeah, I think we know that simply saying, elect me because I can make history, which
00:40by the way, women rarely do.
00:43But they're kind of attacked for that, like, oh, you're just asking people to vote for
00:47me because, or vote for you because you're a woman, or because you're going to make history.
00:52We know that that actually, largely, isn't an effective message with most voters.
00:56Because voters are smart and they want to elect somebody on issues, they want to elect
01:00somebody that shares their, maybe, lived experiences or their priorities.
01:04And so that's where the line, I think, is a little blurred, right?
01:08So she can absolutely leverage her lived experience and distinct perspective, both race, gender,
01:15as well as her political background experience, her parents, their stories.
01:22She can leverage all of that to say, I understand certain issues, or I will fight for these
01:27issues, maybe in a different way than a white male candidate would have.
01:32I think you'll see that, and we have already seen that from her.
01:35You know, we saw it when she ran for president the first time, we saw it on the trail as
01:39vice president, as well as in her time of office, being willing to say, if you remember
01:43in the debate, you know, I was that black girl being bust, right?
01:46So there is a direct authenticity to her voice that she will bring and can leverage
01:52to her advantage.
01:53But that is different than saying, because I'm going to make history, you know, vote
01:58for me.
01:59The folks who will do that, there will be people who leverage that argument, and those
02:03are going to be advocates and organizations, and even maybe some in her campaign that make
02:08the t-shirts or the memes or whatever.
02:11And that will mobilize a small group, and it will energize some folks to maybe get involved
02:18and share that enthusiasm and hope for the campaign, because I don't want to discount
02:22the importance symbolically of it.
02:24But I think she will focus more on what it actually means in terms of the merits of who
02:29she is and how that will affect the agenda she brings forth, the voices that get raised
02:36in her administration, and ultimately the impact she can have.