How The 'Electability Bias' Could Harm Kamala Harris In A Matchup With Donald Trump

3 months ago

On "Forbes Newsroom," Kelly Dittmar, director of research for Rutgers' Center for American Women and Politics, sat down with ForbesWomen editor Maggie McGrath to talk about Vice President Kamala Harris and the 'electability bias'.

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Transcript

00:00Now, you mentioned the electability concerns that struck her four years ago, and obviously

00:06a lot has changed in four years.

00:08We have emerged from a global pandemic.

00:09She has been second in command.

00:12But I've already heard some concerns from certain corners of the Internet and of society

00:18saying, you know, a woman ran against Trump in 2016.

00:22And look at how that turned out.

00:23How are you looking at I know it's only been 24 hours, but how are you looking at how people

00:28are talking about Vice President Harris now that she is the presumptive nominee?

00:35Yeah, I mean, inevitably, as we've already seen, questions raised immediately are can

00:41she win? Now, we would ask that of any candidate, right, especially in this crazy

00:45circumstance. You know, can she win with just a few months?

00:49Can she win in bringing the Democratic Party together?

00:52Like those are real legitimate questions.

00:55But I think what we have to be really cognitive about is that the idea that she can't

01:01win because she's a woman or because she's a black woman is just perpetuating this

01:08bias. Right.

01:09So if you say that somebody who hasn't done it before, right, somebody who represents a

01:15community that hasn't yet been in the office can never win the office.

01:20Right. We never make history.

01:21And so when Kamala Harris for now many years has that line in her speech about being

01:28unburdened by what has been, I always get it wrong, but, you know, to see what is

01:34possible, that is her directly trying to take on the electability biases.

01:40She would say things on the campaign trail like, I'm going to address the elephant in the

01:44room. And effectively, and I'm paraphrasing, you know, she would say, you don't think I'm

01:48electable, but here's why I am.

01:51And so what I think we'll see in the coming days, and we've already seen from her

01:56surrogates and folks endorsing her, are reinforcements.

02:00She is qualified.

02:02She has the support.

02:03There is no reason that she can't win this race.

02:06And that is something that is more important.

02:09That effort and that reassurance has historically been and will be in this race more

02:14important for a woman and in this case, a woman of color, because there are these

02:20perceptions among the electorate that, oh, I just I'm not sure the country is ready.

02:27And when people buy into that electability bias, they reinforce it through a number of

02:32ways. One, they start to say, like, I guess I'll put my money behind somebody else.

02:37Or they say, you know what, she has no chance and maybe I won't go out and knock those

02:41doors. And so really taking that head on right now and using the fundraising numbers and

02:48the mobilizing numbers and the number of endorsements that we're seeing from prominent

02:52Democrats, using that to say, like, oh, she's clearly electable.

02:57Hopefully, I think for her campaign, they're hoping that that will push back against some

03:02of those biases early so that she doesn't have to spend so much time.

03:05I mean that as her campaign, you know, fighting those biases going forward.

How The 'Electability Bias' Could Harm Kamala Harris In A Matchup With Donald Trump

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