Two years after Donald Trump´s arrival in the White House, Democrats are scrambling for record numbers to get him out in 2020, confident that Americans are ready to elect a woman this time at the head of the United States.
The Democratic race opened to the White House with 69-year-old Elizabeth Warren announcing her nomination on 31 December. Three other candidates, Senators Kirsten Gillibrand, 52, and Camala Harris, 54, and then-deputy Talsi Gabard, 37, were in the lead.
On the men´s side, there are big names such as Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders, Pete Aurorck and Michael Bloomberg, but none of them has announced his candidacy, leaving the scene for the Democratic candidates at the start of this long period separating the country from the start of the campaign officially.
"The number of women candidates is unprecedented in history," said Irine Cassese, a political science professor at the University of Delaware, at a time when a fourth female senator, Amy Klobokar, is running.
In 2016, Democrat Hillary Clinton was defeated by Donald Trump in front of supporters who were weeping with disappointment. She regretted not being able to smash the "glass ceiling" in her words to become the first woman president of the United States.
"But a woman will do it one day, let´s hope it is closer than we think," she said after a campaign of many attacks on her as a woman. Trump won despite charges of sexual harassment and many derogatory comments to women. Issued by him.
"If I was painstakingly drawn in 2016, it´s just how horribly we apply the standards," Clinton´s then-vice presidential candidate Tim Cain told AFP.
He said the November 2018 legislative elections were encouraging, as "great energy was shown by women candidates."
With at least four women nominated to date for the 2020 presidential elections, equality between men and women in politics is progressing rapidly.
"When there is only one candidate, she is put in a special category, as an anomaly," Eren Cassese said, hoping that this time the spotlight will be on candidate programs.
But she does not expect candidates to get away with what most women do in politics. "They face the dual requirement to show kindness and efficiency at the same time ... but it is very difficult to do both."
Candidates from the beginning are subject to a standard of "personal affection," a criterion rarely applied to male candidates. Hillary Clinton, who some have accused of lack of spontaneity,
It is also often necessary for female candidates to "make strategic calculations", choosing either to emphasize their femininity as candidates or to underestimate the importance of being women, and it is difficult to know which option is right.
Gillibrand, known for her struggle against sexual harassment in the race, has known herself as a "mother" willing to fight for others just as she does for her children. Her name is listed in pink on her 2020 Black and White campaign site.
Other female candidates do not focus much on this aspect, without reaching the point of avoiding it entirely.
The United States appeared ready to elect the 2016 president as Clinton trumped Trump in terms of popular vote at the national level, but she did not win enough votes from senior voters.
Kamala Harris is confident of her chance, and will win if she wins the first black woman in the US presidency.
Asked by ABC television before her official announcement whether Americans would choose such a radical transformation after Donald Trump, she replied, "Surely, we should trust the American people more, they are smarter than that."
