It’s been a rough week for our presidential women. With Amy Klobuchar suspending her campaign, and Elizabeth Warren posting disappointing results on Super Tuesday, our hopes of electing a woman president in 2020 are dwindling.
It’s a frustrating, maddening turn of events in the wake of a history-making field of diverse candidates that kicked off this campaign. It’s especially painful given that the first woman nominated on a major-party ticket won the popular vote in 2016 but lost the election.
Warren is vowing to stay in the race until the end, and we’ll cheer her on for as long as she’s still in it.
But we’re also turning our anger into action, to start the speculation—and the fierce pressure—for the eventual nominee to put a woman on the ticket in 2020.
Here’s how this will work: All donations go to a ‘draft fund,’ meaning they’ll be held by WomenCount until there’s an official nominee. Then, if that nominee picks any of these women as a running mate, we’ll release the funds to the nominee’s campaign.
Right now the slate includes political rock stars you’ve heard floated for VP before—like Stacey Abrams and Tammy Duckworth. But there are also some fresh faces who are less well-known: the new Governor of Michigan, Gretchen Whitmer; the new Governor of New Mexico, Michelle Lujan Grisham; and recent House impeachment manager Val Demings.
And of course, we’re including Kamala Harris, Kirsten Gillibrand, and Amy Klobuchar.
If the nominee doesn’t pick one of these women or any woman, we’ll roll your donation into our work funding women in critical down-ballot races.