Opinion | The Double Standard for Female Candidates

Democrats have run women for executive positions before, and it has not worked. And so the question is: Does the electorate have problems voting for women for executive positions? “The outcome of this election is not what we wanted…” During the No Kings rally, I went to Montclair, NJ, to spend a little time with a member of Congress named Mikie Sherrill. She is one of two Democratic women running for governor in the 2025 cycle. “These two races are the biggest flashing red siren signs for Republicans.” Both women are polling as much as five to seven points ahead of their challengers. “We are optimistic.” But I talked to a bunch of different people —— “From the great state of New Jersey.” …and there is an underlying anxiety. Is this anxiety because norms and institutions are being crushed every day? “Don’t tell us what we’re going to feel.” “Trump just smoked four more coke boats.” “I hate my opponent.” Or is this anxiety because a lot of people in the Democratic Party feel that the electorate may be more sexist than we know? “She is a really shallow and uneducated person.” “She is like a biracial werewolf.” “Like a vacuous, incompetent female vice president.” When I saw Mikie Sherrill, what I was struck by was that she was actually a really great speaker, despite the fact that I had read a lot of stuff that said she wasn’t as good a candidate as she clearly was when I saw her. So I thought: Wow, what I’m reading in the news does not match with what I’m seeing on the ground. It made me think that maybe there was some kind of anti-woman sentiment that was tainting the reporting, that was tainting the way people were seeing these candidates. And then I wondered: Is it going to trickle down to the electorate? Or no? “The race is actually tightening… ” “New Jersey’s governor’s race neck and neck.” Why is this candidate who is so good on paper and so good in person, so ballotized? “All the controversies that have plagued Mikie Sherrill’s campaign.” “Democrat Mikie Sherrill may be caught in another scandal…” “We were talking off camera about why this is even brought up, why she didn’t walk in her graduation.” it struck me as sexism. “What he always says is ‘you got to beat this (pause).’” These two women… “We’re going to win.” are then put in a position where everything is really remaining on them. They sort of have to overperform because if they don’t, then Trump will take this as some kind of belief that he can do more of the kind of destruction he’s doing on the federal government. And I think that the fact that these two women are being ballotized like this is pretty much where women are right now in American politics. They are being held up to standards that men are not.