Although in fairness they were both centrists who pivoted more center, which imo is a recipe for disaster especially for women candidates who are just never going to capture significant rightwing votes. Kamala in particular started out really really strongly and lost more and more support as she gave up leftwing talking points
I think this is the critical point. Women candidates will continue to struggle with voters that are center to center-right, so a woman presidential candidate really needs to have broad appeal on the left to succeed. They can’t afford to lose many, if any, likely leftist or liberal voters. Both Harris and Clinton were deeply unpopular with the American Left. Many were willing to swallow their pride to vote for Harris, but then she refused to call a genocide a genocide, and many dropped their support in response. A female candidate cannot afford to alienate leftists on such a critical issue.
Although in fairness they were both centrists who pivoted more center, which imo is a recipe for disaster especially for women candidates who are just never going to capture significant rightwing votes. Kamala in particular started out really really strongly and lost more and more support as she gave up leftwing talking points
I think this is the critical point. Women candidates will continue to struggle with voters that are center to center-right, so a woman presidential candidate really needs to have broad appeal on the left to succeed. They can’t afford to lose many, if any, likely leftist or liberal voters. Both Harris and Clinton were deeply unpopular with the American Left. Many were willing to swallow their pride to vote for Harris, but then she refused to call a genocide a genocide, and many dropped their support in response. A female candidate cannot afford to alienate leftists on such a critical issue.