Would Democrats run Kamala Harris — or any woman — in 2028?

Kamala Harris does not want to be governor of California, who has many contenders (and some voters) who make a happy dance this week.

But with her announcement on Wednesday that she bowed to a race to which she never officially entered, Harris sparked a wave of speculation according to which she warms up for another race in the White House in 2028.

Whether you like Harris or not, a possible managed by the former vice-president of the XX chromosome raises a perennial enigma: can a woman win the presidency?

“This question is legitimate,” said Nadia E. Brown.

She is a government teacher and director of the female and gender study program at Georgetown University. She points out that post-electoral, Democrats cannot understand who they are or what they represent. In this disarray, it may seem easy and safe in 2028 to travel the well -used path of “an old right white which fills the status quo”.

This can be particularly true in the Trump era, when an increasingly vocal and autonomous America slice seems to believe that women actually belong to cooking, which makes Sanwhiches, far from any decision beyond turkey or ham.

Brown underlines that even the Democrats who display their progressive values, including how they would like to vote for a president, can house the secret sexism that comes out in the intimacy of the voting stand.

After 2024, Harris’ defeat – and decipher what it means – caused a large part of “morning anxiety and agita,” she said. “We are all doing research, we are all in the field trying to understand this.”

While the confused democrats went privately with their feelings, the Republicans made race and gender the center of their platform, even if they mask it under economic speeches. The party’s position on the breed has become painfully clear with its position that all undocumented immigrants are criminals and deserve a horrible detention in places such as “Alligator Alcatraz” or even foreign prisons known for torture.

The republican position on women is slightly more masked, but no less retrograde. Whether it is the refusal to tell the public how Trump is included in Epstein files, the rapid and brutal erosion of reproduction rights, or the affirmations, such as that of the far -right podcaster Charlie Kirk, that the only reason for women to go to university should be to obtain an “MME”. Degree, the Republicans have little secret that equality is not part of their package.

Although Trump’s approval notes landed on immigration, he won just over half of the popular vote last fall. It is therefore many Americans who agree with him, or at least are not embarrassed by these ideas of early rights on race and sex.

To add to this reality the impatient pack of beautiful white democrats in complete safety who lines up for their own chance at the oval office – our current governor of California included – and that asks the question for the left: does a woman are worth the risk?

“I have definitely seen and heard consultants and, you know, even anxious women say:” It may mean that we cannot direct a woman. And I think it is completely normal for certain elements of the party to be worried about sex, “said Mini Timmaraju, president and chief executive officer Freedom for All, a base defense group.

She too thinks that the question of gender is “logical” because it was blamed – but not by it – as “the reason why we lost against Donald Trump twice in a row, right? While Biden was able to beat him. ”

Although Timmaraju is clear that these losses cannot – and should not be linked to gender alone, sex cannot be ignored either when the margins are thin.

Joseph Geevarghese, executive director of the progressive political organization group, our revolution, who supported Bernie Sanders as president in 2016, said that sex and race are still a factor, but he thinks that the more important question for any candidate in 2028 will be their platform.

Harris, he said, “did not lose because she was a woman. She lost because she did not adopt an economic populist message. And I think the electorate is angry with their standard of living in decline, and they are angry with the elites controlling DC and enriching.”

Greevarghese told me that he saw an opposite momentum in the party and the electorate – a desire not to play safely.

“Whoever it is – masculine, woman, gay, hetero, black, white, Asian – the candidate must have a criticism of this moment, and that cannot be a bound.”

Brown, the professor, rightly adds that looking at the question of the chances of a candidate through Just Harris’ objective is too narrow. There are many women likely to jump in the race. The governor of Michigan, Gretchen Whitmer, and the representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez are only two names already in the mix. Brown adds that an outside competitor like a woman of a political dynasty (think of Obama) or a fame in the sense of Trump could also make progress.

Harris criticisms, with her loss loss of the election and criticism of how she managed the campaign and the media, may not be another candidate, in particular with the voters.

“Whether Kamala runs again or not, I am optimistic that the American people will vote for a president,” said Vanessa Cardenas. She is the executive director of America’s Voice, a group for the defense of immigrants’ rights.

Cardenas stresses that Hillary Clinton received more than 65 million votes (winning the popular vote) and Harris exceeded 75 million. If just the Latinos had left for Harris, instead of breaking in a quarter of the onset, she would have won. Cardenas thinks that Latin votes could again change in 2028.

“After chaos, the cruelty and incompetence of the Trump presidency, Latin voters, like most Americans, will reward candidates who can speak most authentic and seem to be ready to fight for an alternative vision of America,” she said. “I believe that women and women of color can credibility and speak of force in the need for a change rooted in the lived experiences of their communities.”

Timmaraju has said that whatever Harris decides, Democrats will probably have one of the most robust primaries in recent times – which can only be good for the party and for voters.

And rather than asking: “Can a woman win?” The best question would be, “Do we really want a system that won’t let them try?”