In 2020, A Woman Running Mate Won’t Be A ‘Hail Mary’

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Geraldine Ferraro joined Democrat Walter Mondale’s 1984 presidential campaign when he was trailing President Reagan badly in the polls.





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«​I think we have plenty of women who are qualified, but I just don’t think this is a year to gamble. We want to get Reagan out of the White House. That is the height of my ambition, she said.

Thirty-six years later, Democrats are still fretting about women and electability — not to mention ambition.

«​I remember when Geraldine Ferraro was nominated, and it was exciting, said Karen Finney, spokesperson for Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign. «But our country is in a different place, even though some of those same sexist and racist tropes remain.

It’s true that a lot has changed.

For starters, Biden announced months ahead of time that he’d pick a woman, and there’s a deeper bench of women for him to pick from. In addition, several women of color are contenders for that spot.



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But there’s also a less-obvious contrast with Ferraro and Palin, the 2008 Republican nominee for vice president.

«I think in both of those cases, putting a woman on felt a bit like a ‘Hail Mary,’ which I don’t get the sense that it has that same feel this time around, said Debbie Walsh, director of the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University.

Picking women to jolt the campaign to life

In 1984, Democratic nominee Walter Mondale was down by double digits against President Reagan in some national polling in the weeks before he picked Ferraro as his running mate.

«Let’s face it: Walter Mondale was a fantastic candidate, [but] probably not the most lively candidate, said Scott Widmeyer, who was Ferraro’s press secretary. «So we were looking to bring excitement to the ticket. And when you look at Geraldine Ferraro, she brought that spark.



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Ferraro used that spark at times to swipe back at sexism. In her vice presidential debate against George H.W. Bush, Ferraro chided Bush for talking down to her: «I almost resent, Vice President Bush, your patronizing attitude that you have to teach me about foreign policy.

John McCain likewise was substantially behind Barack Obama for much of summer 2008 before picking Palin.

Similarly, there was a sense then that Palin could liven up McCain’s campaign. And she briefly did provide a jolt to the ticket, giving a widely well-received convention speech.





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Then-Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin accepts the Republican nomination for vice president in September 2008.





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It’s true that vice presidential candidates tend to only affect presidential elections at the margins — voters are still casting a ballot for the top of the ticket. But Finney, nevertheless, said she hopes Biden’s running mate could energize some voters.

«I think you can’t underestimate the importance for women and how heartbroken so many women were in 2016 with Hillary’s loss, she said.

That means it might be some consolation to those women if this year, a woman finally gets to the second highest office in the land.