Brett Kavanaugh: How the hearing could inspire more women to vote and seek elected office
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From left, minority members of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., and Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., wait through procedural delays as Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh appears for the third day of his confirmation hearing, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Sept. 6, 2018.
Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, center, accompanied by Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, left, and Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., the ranking member on the Senate Judiciary Committee, right, speaks toward the committee Democrats.
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WASHINGTON – When Sen. Dianne Feinstein leads the Democrats on the Judiciary Committee in questioning Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh and Christine Blasey Ford, the woman accusing him of sexual assault, it will bring Feinstein’s career full circle.
Feinstein decided to seek office after she watched how Anita Hill was treated in 1991 when she testified she had been sexually harassed in the workplace by high court nominee Clarence Thomas.
That hearing, held by an all-male, all-white committee, “spurred me to run, I can tell you that,†Feinstein told reporters at the Capitol this week. The California senator became one of four women elected to the Senate in 1992, the so-called “Year of the Woman.” In the House, 24 women were voted in.
Some analysts say that 2018 could see a similar boost in support for Democrats by women disgruntled at how Republicans have, as Majority Leader Mitch McConnell vowed, continued to “plow right throughâ€Â the hearings to get Kavanaugh confirmed despite Ford’s allegations.
This year, a record number of women are running for elected office, many of them women of color. A coalition of groups have launched projects to get more women to run for Congress and other elected offices. They also have started training programs.
“It’s likely that many Democratic women will use the Kavanaugh nomination as a rallying point,” said John J. Pitney Jr., a politics professor at Claremont McKenna College. “Either implicitly or explicitly, the message will be that we need more women in office to end the toleration of sexual assault and sexual harassment.â€
Several black women’s groups oppose Kavanaugh’s nomination and have vowed to make the push to stop his confirmation a campaign issue in the midterms.
Melanie Campbell of the Black Women’s Roundtable said, “I believe women of color and many white women will rise up at the ballot box on Nov. 6, if the GOP pushes Judge Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court nomination through and ignore the fact that three women have come out with allegations that Kavanaugh sexually abused them.”Â
Campbell called it “political malpractice” for the GOP leadership to not call for an FBI investigation of Ford’s allegations.
But some Democratic women say complaints about Ford’s treatment should simply be added to a longer list of grievances.
Alexandra De Luca, a spokeswoman for Emily’s List – a group that works to get women who are supportive of abortion rights elected to Congress – said the Kavanaugh nomination is “another reminder why elections matter.â€
And, De Luca said, women were already motivated this election cycle by the election of President Donald Trump.
“Women have already been energized to take action since Trump’s first day in office. They marched in the millions, they took to town halls to protest the GOP’s Obamacare repeal bill and their tax scam, and they’re running for office in record numbers,†De Luca said.
Alice Stewart, a GOP strategist who worked for both Ted Cruz and Mike Huckabee on presidential campaigns, said it’s “premature to speculate†about what will happen with female voters in November until after the hearings. But Stewart acknowledged that the majority of voters already have made up their minds.
“I think Democrats who didn’t like Trump are still gonna not like Trump. Republicans who still like Trump will still like Trump. As with every election, the real focus is on the independents and I think how the hearings – the open hearings – play out will be a big factor with how the independents respond to this process in November,†Stewart said.
Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., was elected along with Feinstein in 1992. She too, was inspired to run by the Hill hearing. And while she isn’t on the Judiciary Committee, she pledges to seek fairness as her colleagues assess Kavanaugh’s qualifications and his accuser’s testimony Thursday.
“I ran to be a voice for the women and men across the country who thought it was absolutely wrong for her to be ignored and attacked – swept aside and disbelieved,” she said. “I ran for right here, in this moment, in the United States Senate – to make sure we don’t allow that to happen again.”
Contributing: Deborah Barfield Berry and Nicole Gaudiano
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