Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) is blunt—the women have been pushed out.
In late August, Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) exited the 2020 presidential race. Earlier this month, Senator Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) announced she would end her campaign too. Meanwhile, over a dozen candidates—most of whom are less well known than those two women—remain in the contest, with the field somewhat narrower and much, much more male than it was even 12 weeks ago. As some on social media have noted, there are now more billionaires up for the Democratic nomination than there are black women. And of the six candidates who qualified for this week’s Democratic debate, zero are people of color.
The problem is bigger than just who gets to stand behind a podium. With candidates like Gillibrand and Harris out of contention, their ideas risk elimination too. And Warren—who has put a feminist spin on retirement benefits and student debt—refuses to let that happen.
“We’ve seen a record number of women in this race,” Warren tells Glamour. “That means, together, we’ve been able to shape the national conversation, to highlight issues impacting people in America.” But, she adds, as men who can afford to pour tens of millions of dollars into their own runs declare their candidacies, that discussion suffers.
After Warren announced her bid, she unveiled her plan to make affordable childcare available to families nationwide. Gillibrand pioneered paid leave legislation. Harris prioritized reproductive healthcare. “These are powerful issues, not just for women, but for families,” Warren says. And of course, the fact that Gillibrand and Harris aren’t on the trail doesn’t mean we’ve solved them. So, Warren reached out to her former rivals and asked their permission—both to add their policies to her platform and to attribute those plans to the women responsible for them.
