Good morning, America; are you ready for an all-woman ballot?

It's possible, just possible, that with Joe Biden's decision to step away from the Presidential race, there's a reason to be hopeful, after all.

Kamala Harris and Gina Raimondo; Getty Images, Credit: Alex Wong

For the past week, there’s been an underlying sense of unease around President Joe Biden’s candidacy. Would he stay in the race, or wouldn’t he?

The polls had not been kind to Biden for the past year, showing that Trump maintained a steady lead over the Democratic President, former Vice President, and long-serving Senator from Delaware.

Whether there was internal turmoil or not during that time, a worrisome showing at the first Presidential Debate in late June sparked a movement that gently but firmly urged the president to step aside.

Certain social media influencers tried, without success, to turn the growing tide of resignation to a Trump win among Democrat support. It was painfully obvious that there was little to be hopeful about for the Biden team.

Democrats liked and respected Joe Biden, his long career, and his tenure as 46th President, but the growing bloc of registrations as “Independents” (those unwilling to declare for either Democrats or Republicans) is now large enough, at around one third of registered voters, to demand recognition.

After weeks of steadfast refusal publicly from the Biden camp, a post on social media alerted the country to Biden’s intention to withdraw his candidacy, along with an endorsement of his Vice President, former Senator and Attorney General from California, Kamala Harris.

The move galvanized Democrats and injected, finally, a sense of both possibility and hope into a race where there was no real excitement, aside from the tragically comic horrors provided daily by former president and current Republican nominee Donald Trump.

Former South Carolina Governor and Republican primary candidate Nikki Haley, whose early (and only) success in Washington, D.C. made her the first woman to ever win a Republican primary, said in a speech back in January, "The first party to retire its 80 year old candidate is going to be the one who wins this election."

Hope doesn’t guarantee a win, but the move has stymied the Republican campaign

Polling exists for Harris v Trump and Americans didn’t seem much more enthusiastic about Harris than they were about Biden, though it doesn’t necessarily discount a new slate if it was Biden who was pulling down the support generally, which Democrats obviously decided was the case.

Harris’ choice for Vice President will be aimed at complementing Harris’ strengths, as Harris being Biden’s choice did for his candidacy in 2020. It’s also about achieving “balance”.

In choosing Harris as his running mate, Biden had Harris’ relative youth and new to politics position as only a one term senator to his own maturity and forty-year political career; her gender, ethnicity, and geographical representation to his.

As the safe choice, in terms of electability, she may seek a lot of similar qualities to Biden in a running mate.

Republicans began unironically sharing memes of wine descriptors as Harris’ options for VP.

I mean, they know who their Republican options were, too, don’t they?

Trump himself has not taken Biden’s decision to step down well. The entirety of the Republican campaign over the past year has been focused on Biden and his decision to remove himself forces the campaign to pivot mid-way. It’s not ideal from a campaign perspective, but apparently, it’s really not ideal from Trump’s perspective, as he can’t seem to shake the fact that he won’t be challenging Biden personally.

They’ve campaigned against Biden’s age, mental and physical competency, his connection to well-known Democrats and visual representation of the status quo. Harris, if she is the successful nominee, makes all of that previous work, and likely the cache of attacks yet to be released, useless.

Yet, if this was planned, I hope that Harris can throw one more wrench into the Republican machine: by inviting another woman to put her name on the ticket as Harris’ VP.

A powerhouse move or risky business?

It may seem “too” progressive. As the age old double standard goes, America might not be mentally prepared to vote for a ticket with two women; especially when they would be up against the more familiar and comforting option of two white guys.

“Comforting” may not be the right word; we know how a lot of women would respond if they were asked who they’d rather run into while alone in the woods.

Aside from a few women who are currently serving as leaders in their respective states, there is another woman who may be available to join Harris on the Presidential ticket — lawyer, venture capitalist, and former Governor of Rhode Island, Gina Raimondo.

She is east coast while Harris is west. She is from private enterprise while Harris is from government. She has been serving as the U.S. Secretary of Commerce since 2021. If Harris represents justice, Raimondo represents economics. Harris for fairness, Raimondo for business.

I love it already.

So much has changed since Donald Trump was elected the first time. We’ve seen the #MeToo movement and a record number of women elected to state legislatures. We’ve seen women’s stories on the big screen in Hidden Figures, Battle of the Sexes, On the Basis of Sex, and Bombshell. We’ve seen their stories on the smaller screens in The Beanie Bubble and Mastermind: to think like a killer.

We know women have been changing their worlds, however small, and that success moves outwards and empowers more and more women.

I can’t say for certain if America is ready, but I can say with near certainty that I don’t think Donald Trump and the Republican campaign would be.

It’s the least of the reasons I would want to see this happen, but, frankly, it does nothing to persuade me to change my mind.

Girl power.

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