2016 DEMOCRATIC WOMEN VICE PRESIDENTIAL CONTENDERS
The N.Y. Times offered an interesting speculation about potential Democratic presidential candidates in the unlikely event Hillary Clinton did not run in 2016 ("Imagining 2016 Without Hillary Clinton," March 12, 2016.) The article is particularly useful not only in highlighting prominent Democratic women as presidential contenders if Hillary were not to run, but also calling our attention to two potential female running mates in the more probable event that Hillary does run.
Hillary’s candidacy would raise interesting questions about her running mate. Would the electorate support two women on the ticket? No logical reason not to, since men have been running single-gender tickets since the nation was founded. The main female contenders for the Democratic Veep slot would seem to be Kirsten Gillibrand, Barbara Boxer, Elizabeth Warren with Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz, a dark horse.
Kirsten Gillibrand (48) graduated from Dartmouth in ’88, magna cum laude, member of the undefeated women’s squash team. She’s brainy, articulate, knowledgeable, passionate about her causes (sexual assault in the military, insider trading by members of Congress (based on impending legislation), Latina Sotomayor for SCOTUS, repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, health care for 9/11 first responders). During her 8 years in Congress — 2 as a representative and 6 as senator — she served on various committees, including Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry, Armed Services, Environment and Public Works and the Special Committee on Aging. While as a representative of a very conservative congressional district she was seen as a conservative liberal and a member of the Blue Dog Coalition of fiscally conservative Democrats. In the Senate she is viewed as liberal on such issues as pro-choice, same-sex marriage and health care reform with a public option, transparency, female equality. Accepting the VP nomination would be a risky move for Gillibrand, since her term in the Senate expires in 2016, meaning if Hillary loses, Gillibrand would be forfeiting a secure senate seat she won by a 63% majority in 2010. You also have to wonder whether Hillary’s vanity would allow her to pick a drop-dead gorgeous running mate — although the two are said to be close. Her impressive ability to raise money would certainly weigh on any decision Hillary might make, although in the final analysis, it’s unlikely Clinton could agree to the lack of geographical balance implied by naming another NY senator as her running mate in 2016. However, Hillary might be willing to overlook that drawback in 2020 (assuming she wins in 2016) in an effort to tee Gillibrand up to succeed her in 2024 as the standard bearer of Hillary’s legacy within the next generation.
Kirsten Gillibrand
Senator Barbara Boxer (74 ) would balance the ticket geographically and ideologically (as an unabashed liberal). She has a wealth of experience (23 years in the Senate, 10 in the House, implying superior money-raising ability) and corresponding name recognition; but assuming Hillary wins and wants to leave a legacy, Boxer would be too old at 84 in 2024 to succeed Clinton. However, she’s a very attractive, spry and articulate 74-year-old now, so she could conceivably serve 1 term as VP and then at age 79 pass the baton to a younger woman in the 2020 election (Gillibrand? Schultz?). I rather like the idea. Boxer has said she was not retiring on account of age and intends to remain “in the fight,” so maybe her retirement from the Senate in 2016 signals her availability for the vice-presidential nomination.
Barbara Boxer
Elizabeth Warren (65) the senior senator from Massachusetts (taking office in January 2013 after the Senate rejected her as head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau she successfully lobbied for, organized and briefly ran ) could be a presidential contender in her own right (sometimes referred to as "Plan B" if Hillary were not to run). Brought up working class in Oklahoma, she knows the trouble the middle and lower class experience at the hands of heartless and imprudent lenders. She is the unchallenged champion of consumer protection. Voted Oklahoma’s top debater in high school and winning a debating scholarship to George Washington University, Warren is a debater extraordinaire, armed with extensive factual knowledge and the ability to extemporize with devastating effectiveness on her populist home turf. Holding her own growing up with 3 older brothers may account for her feistiness in the debating arena. She, along with Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, come the closest to the truth when they “tell it like it is.” Straight shooters both. A lawyer (Rutgers School of Law, 1976) and prominent law professor at several universities, Warren ended up at Harvard in 1995. While she has only 2 years experience in elective office, she has occupied prominent advisory and managerial roles in Washington since 1995, acquiring a high public profile with frequent appearances in the media; so she knows her way around inside the Beltway. Warren has demonstrated exceptional money-raising ability both in her senate campaign ($36 million) and as a top fund-raiser for Democratic candidates in 2014. Being roughly the same age as Hillary, Warren would not represent a generational shift in 2024 when she’d be 74. The most likely path to the presidency for Warren would be if Hillary fails to be elected in 2016, leaving the field open in 2020, when Warren would be 70 with 7 years experience in the Senate.
Elizabeth Warren
Debbie Wasserman Schultz (48) could be on Clinton’s short list for VP for several reasons: She is a member of the next generation after Clinton; prominent in Democratic politics as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives since 2005 (the first Jewish congresswoman from Florida) representing the influential Broward Miami-Dade district becoming Chief Deputy Whip and a member of the influential House Committee on Appropriations, the chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee since 2011, and before that as a Florida state representative and senator. Born and raised in Long Island, NY, Wasserman attended the University of Florida at Gainesville where she was active in student politics, and remained in Florida thereafter. She’s smart, articulate, attractive and media savvy. Her causes include pro-choice, pro-firearm restriction legislation, increased penalties for identity thieves, support for the LGBT community and moderation on Middle East issues. Her ties to the influential Jewish community and her proven ability to raise funds count as definite plusses as a vice presidential candidate both in 2016 and 2020 (if the Boxer VP-scenario plays out), meaning at age 57 she would have a shot at becoming the nation’s first Jewish president in 2025.
Debby Wasserman Schultz
What impresses me is the depth of bright, articulate, charismatic women on the Democratic bench, in sharp contrast to the male-dominated Republican bench.
As an aside, I’d like to see Vt. senator Bernie Sanders run, not because he has a prayer of winning, but because he would bring to the fore a progressive perspective on issues that ought to be addressed — Big Money hijacking the democratic political process, the abuses by Wall Street, income/wealth inequality and the effects thereof, universal health care, job creation by investment in infrastructure, for example.