Kirsten Gillibrand Blames Her Campaign’s Failures on “Gender Bias”
When all else fails, they play the woman card.
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) became one of the first Democrats to jump into the 2020 presidential race earlier this year. She started with a large war chest left over from her successful Senate runs in 2012 and 2018, and hoped to capitalize on the historic 2018 election that saw a record number of women elected to the U.S. House.
She first formed an exploratory committee in January, and visited several key states around the country. But by the time she formally announced her candidacy in March, the field already had 13 candidates.
Now, the Democrats have over 20 candidates with more expected to enter.
Through it all, she has experienced disappointing fundraising and polling numbers. Seriously. If you look at the history of 2020 presidential polling, she’s not even at a 1% average over a period of several months.
She’s now in danger of not even meeting the Democratic party’s minimum requirements to qualify for the first debate, which is scheduled to take place in late June.
With her campaign failing to gain traction in the media coverage wars, and her lackluster fundraising and polling numbers for the last five months, what has Gillibrand decided to do? Blame “gender bias,” as CNN’s Dan Merica reported in a puff piece published on Sunday from the campaign trail in New Hampshire:
“My [2006 Congressional] opponent never took me seriously,” she said at a coffee shop in Derry. “Which is why I know I am going to beat Trump, because he is not going to take me seriously.”
Gillibrand, in an interview after the event, let out a hearty “yeah” when asked if she felt she was currently being underestimated in the race for the Democratic nomination.
“I think it’s just gender bias. I think people are generally biased against women. I think also biased against young women,” she said. “There’s just bias and it’s real and it exists, but you have to overcome it.”
The frustration has clearly set in for Gillibrand, because just a few weeks ago she gave a more measured response on the “why” question:
“Why do you think white male candidates are doing better than any of the women candidates?” [MSNBC‘s Andrea] Mitchell asked Gillibrand, one of several female senators running for president.
“Well, I don’t know, but this is a marathon and not a sprint,” Gillibrand replied. “And I know that I have a vision for this country and the experience to actually get it done and a plan to get it done.”
Gillibrand and any other female candidate running for president who believes their gender has held them back from higher polling numbers among their base voters at this point have very short memories. Hillary Clinton, of course, won the Democratic nomination in 2016 and came very close to winning the nomination in 2008.
Clearly, the glass ceiling on a woman winning a major party’s presidential nomination no longer exists.
And as I noted earlier, women candidates (most of them Democrats) won Congressional races all over the country last November, even in some areas that had a more reliably Republican rating than Democrat. Not only that, but a few male candidates have numbers at or near Gillibrand’s. What would she blame their campaign failures on since the “man card” is off the table?
To the extent there is any gender bias in 2019 when it comes to choosing a candidate, it is mostly negligible, especially at the presidential level. It’s just inexcusable – not to mention embarrassing – for any female presidential candidate at this point in America’s history to default to the woman card when their campaigns aren’t headed in the right direction.
Why not engage in some campaign introspection and fine-tune areas that need some work, instead of taking the “it’s not me, it’s them” approach?
If Gillibrand thinks her “blame the voter” game is going to win over converts, she’s in for a rude awakening.
— Stacey Matthews has also written under the pseudonym “Sister Toldjah” and can be reached via Twitter. —
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Comments
How can this be?!?!?
Didn’t she expertly play her apron strings on Mother’s Day?
Yeah.
And why is she deliberately insulting Hillary Clinton’s Women (base)?
Hillary’s pick using the Harpy Hags excuses,I’m shocked,shocked I tell you.
Gilli, it’s not bias, you’re just so unmemorable, I forget New York has two Senators most of the time.
Maybe the things NY residents elected her for alienate the rest of Americans?
I voted against her, so I don’t know what the downstate vote mills were thinking.
Should we tell her it’s because of her color?
Her Yellow Back!
(AKA Coward Democrat) SNARK.
I didn’t know “bland, boring flip-flopper” was a gender.
Must have missed it among the 57 options we have when picking our gender on social media sites.
It’snot gender bias, say the women. It’s insane public policies being pushed by the Democrat Party. Despite all their blather, it’s clear that the current administration is blessedly sane.
At 52, calling herself a young woman is being a bit generous to herself.
She must get her wardrobe advice from RBG. Absent any real personality, at least try wearing a bit of personality. Stop dressing like you’re one of the guys.
Or perhaps, just perhaps, you are just another empty-suit airhead and people have already grown tired of your flip-flopping, moral compass-free quest for relevancy.
“Gender Bias”
More of that “dry humor” that AOC and her minions are famous for
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand started out with such a large war chest,
SHE HAD TO WEAR AN IRON BRA !!!!!!! Ha !
No..really…the problem was Sen. Gillibrand didn’t promise to give away enough free shit….
So now…in an attempt to revitalize her campaign…..
Sen. Gillibrand will be offering…FREE PIGGY BACK RIDES !!!
This person’s entire career was based on being a “mini-me” of Hillary Clintoon. Does she really not know why she’s failing?
Then that means she’s only been riding Bill Clinton’s 1996 coat tails.
So she’s making the argument that the reason that she’s a flaming dingbat is because she’s a women?
An empty pant suit.
If you don’t want people biasing against you because you’re a woman, stop talking about the fact that you’re a woman. Talk about your credentials. Talk about what makes you qualified to run as president. Granted, it’s a very tiny list and not much to talk about.
Does she have any of those other things?
With all her excuse making I assumed she did not…….
Feminine or female? Most people expect a woman to be female and feminine, and would not treat either as a handicap. A majority would have voted for Sarah Palin, and she was notably female, and her femininity (e.g. wife, mother) was actually an asset. Perhaps the problem for women, and men, who fear and loath the feminine gender is due to a micharacterization of its attributes. That said, look deeper, beyond “color”.
That she blames others for her failures disqualifies her for the presidency.
If it’s her gender that’s the problem the why doesn’t she trans herself into a man?
Favorite line from “Justified:”
Raylan: It must be hard for you at work.
Rachel: Because I’m black, and a woman?
Raylan: No, because you are stupid.
Whatever was in my mouth at the time ended up everywhere.
I am sure that scene could be rewritten for Gillibrand.
Great show, phenomenal writing.
Kirsten Gillibrand has one of the same problems as Hillary Clinton: trying to resemble a real live human.
Let her poop on the democrat party for gender bias all she wants. All day long. It’s not like Republicans are responsible for deciding the success or failure of her campaign.