Former Vice President Kamala Harris is pushing back against growing pessimism about whether the United States is prepared to elect a woman to its highest office, offering a more hopeful assessment than former first lady Michelle Obama after the 2024 election.
In an interview with The New York Times published Tuesday, December 9, Harris, 61, said she remains confident in the country’s readiness to choose a woman as president. “I do believe the country is ready,” Harris said, reflecting on her historic but ultimately unsuccessful run as the 2024 Democratic presidential nominee.
Her comments come just weeks after Michelle Obama, also 61, voiced a starkly different conclusion. In a candid sit-down interview with Tracee Ellis Ross, the former first lady said she has no interest in running for president because she does not believe voters would elect a woman.
“As we saw in this past election, sadly, we ain’t ready,” Obama said, referring to President Donald Trump’s victory over Harris in November. “That’s why I’m like, don’t even look at me about running because you all are lying. You’re not ready for a woman. You are not. So don’t waste my time.”
Obama expanded on that view by pointing to persistent gender bias in American politics. “We got a lot of growing up to do,” she said, adding that many men still struggle with the idea of being led by a woman. “And we saw it.”
The comments sparked immediate debate among politicians and political commentators. On ABC’s The View last month, co-host Alyssa Farah Griffin said she respectfully disagreed with Obama’s assessment. Griffin argued that the losses of Harris in 2024 and Hillary Clinton in 2016 reflected the shortcomings of individual campaigns rather than a wholesale rejection of female leadership. “I don’t think that we’re not ready,” she said.
Others sided with Obama’s more skeptical take. Representative James Clyburn of South Carolina, a key Democratic power broker, said he agreed with her assessment during a December 7 appearance on NBC’s Meet the Press. “Michelle Obama is absolutely correct,” Clyburn said. “If you look at the history, we demonstrated that we were not ready.”
Together, the contrasting views from Harris and Obama underscore an unresolved question in American politics: whether recent defeats signal temporary setbacks or a deeper resistance that women candidates must still overcome.
