Does The Historic Nature Of Kamala Harris' Candidacy Help Her?: Professor Weighs In

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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.   Fuel your success with Forbes. Gain unlimited access to premium journalism, including breaking news, groundbreaking in-depth reported stories, daily digests and more. Plus, members get a front-row seat at members-only events with leading thinkers and doers, access to premium video that can help you get ahead, an ad-light experience, early access to select products including NFT drops and more:  https://account.forbes.com/membership/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=growth_non-sub_paid_subscribe_ytdescript   Stay Connected Forbes on Facebook: http://fb.com/forbes Forbes Video on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/forbes Forbes Video on Instagram: http://instagram.com/forbes More From Forbes:  http://forbes.com

Transcript

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.

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