A physician, a law professor, and the granddaughter of a Qualcomm founder are running to oust the Republicans of Orange County — if they can make it out of the Democratic primary first.
They’re formidable candidates, and in any other cycle national Democrats would be rallying behind them, but 2018 is an atypical year. In the aftermath of a brutal presidential election, women donned their pussy hats, marched in the streets, created new grassroots groups in their communities, and now, in what is being hailed as the year of the woman, they’re seeking elected office.
Women emerged victorious in the Ohio, West Virginia, and North Carolina primaries earlier this month. One week later four Democratic women won their primaries in Pennsylvania, a state currently represented exclusively by men. But as attention turns to California, the road for female candidates is far from certain. In a state that’s gone blue in every presidential election since 1992, there’s a chance none of the first-time female candidates running in Democratic primaries will make it to November.
California has adopted a “jungle” primary process in which candidates of all parties run. Out of the seven best pickup options for Democrats across the state, only two districts are sure to have a Democrat on the general election ballot because the Republican is running unopposed. In the other districts, Democrats could be locked out of the general. If those seats are knocked off the board in June, Democrats will take a significant but not irreparable hit in their battle to flip the House.
The Democratic Party hasn’t learned its lesson, said Mai Khanh Tran, a pediatric doctor running in the 39th Congressional District to replace retiring Republican Ed Royce, R-Calif. Hillary Clinton won the district, which stretches from Fullerton to Los Angeles and San Bernardino counties, by nine points in 2016. Clinton was the first Democrat to win all Orange County districts in 80 years.
“The Democratic Party is so concerned about winning that they are pursuing the traditional route toward winning a congressional race,” said Tran, a Vietnamese immigrant. “They haven’t learned their lesson. They haven’t realized that it cannot be politics as usual.”
If Democrats get shut out of the general election in contests like hers, Tran says, it’s because the party is picking the same kind of candidates they always have rather than boosting the women running.
After watching Donald Trump win in 2016, and the GOP votes to undo Obamacare, Tran decided to run, not only for her daughter, but the children she’s treated as a pediatrician.
Despite being the “only qualified woman who has been campaigning for 10 months” in the race, Tran said she was pressured to drop out by the party. The DCCC backed retired Navy officer and Democratic donor Gil Cisneros in April. A congressional member called Tran and told her internal polling showed she couldn’t win if she advanced to the general.
Tran didn’t buy it. And charged that national Democrats and activist groups should be doing more to help female candidates in California.
“We are not getting the support that we deserve and we need,” said Tran. “When it came to the California convention none of those female candidates got endorsed.”
Many of the women running in the crowded California primaries have been told they’re not qualified or that their district isn’t ready to elect a woman. Launching a congressional bid isn’t easy, and if you can’t raise enough money fast enough, it’s difficult to attract support from well-placed Democrats.
Tran’s backed by the powerhouse EMILY’s List, but she’s had difficulty keeping pace financially with the front-runners in her race. Still, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., encouraged Tran to stay in.
In a neighboring Orange County district, one of Warren’s former students is running. Katie Porter, now a professor herself, is a front-runner in the four-candidate primary to take on Republican incumbent Mimi Walters, R-Calif. Despite losing the endorsement of the California Democratic Party to Dave Min, Porter is receiving a lot of help from Washington heavyweights, including Warren. She’s also backed by Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., EMILY’s List, the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, and Democracy for America.
Like Tran, Porter isn’t backed by the DCCC. In Porter’s race, a Democrat is sure to make it on the November ballot because incumbent Walters, who won re-election in 2016 by 17 points, is the only Republican running. Porter is running to the left of Min and recently told the Huffington Post that her qualifications were being called into question because of her previous marriage. Porter is a survivor of domestic abuse and obtained a restraining order when separating from her then-husband.
Porter never thought she’d have to field such attacks in a race for Congress, but she’s optimistic she and Democrats in other districts can topple the Republicans of Orange County.
“2018 election is the first time we have seen a concerted effort across Orange County to win all of these congressional seats,” said Porter. “I think this is going to be our year in 2018 for Orange County.”
Sara Jacobs, who served in President Barack Obama’s State Department and advised Hillary Clinton on foreign policy during the 2016 campaign, is facing an uphill battle in the 49th District. She’s fighting 16 other candidates to replace retiring Republican Darrell Issa, R-Calif.
She’s also secured the support of EMILY’s List, but influential progressive groups have backed other candidates — all men. Jacobs’ office declined a request for an interview, but the 29-year-old has been vocal about her youth and desire to shake up Washington.
“My campaign is not the type that the old boys’ club really knows how to handle,” Jacobs told Vanity Fair in February.
On her website the first thing visitors see is a video which flips through footage over the years of male lawmakers talking on the House floor. “There aren’t a lot of people in Congress that look like me,” Jacobs says as the images of the men flash across the screen. “But maybe there should be.”
Rachel Payne, a former Google executive, took a considerable amount of attacks from trolls and bots on social media during her campaign. Payne sought to oust Republican Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif., in the 48th District, which runs from just north of Huntington Beach down through Laguna Beach.
“People told me that I need to wait my turn and as a woman I have no chance of winning,” Payne said in an interview early last month. “Who am I to think I’m qualified to run?”
Before Payne dropped out on April 30, she was being pressured to step aside, primarily due to fear that two Republicans would move on to the general. Seven Democrats, six men and one woman, remain in the race.
Rep. Linda Sanchez, D-Calif., advises female candidates where she can, but tries to temper expectations of first-time contenders. And money, she said is “the easiest metric” to determine whether a candidate is “viable.”
“Most first time candidates labor under this belief that somehow the party, or DCCC, or somebody else is going to help them,” Sanchez said. “I always tell candidates run as if nobody in the world is going to help you and not rely on anybody else to carry you across that finish line.”
Sanchez, who was first elected to her seat in 2002, said not much has changed for women on the campaign trail.
“There was just this idea that, ‘Oh, it’s cute that a woman wants to run for Congress,’” she said. “I still think there’s this expectation somehow that we should take a backseat to men.”
Sanchez has endorsed male candidates in the 39th, 45th and 48th districts. Two of which, Cisneros in the 39th and Harley Rouda in the 48th, are leading the pack in their prospective races and are backed by the DCCC.
North of Orange County, in the farmland of Central Valley, Virginia Madueno is running in a six-candidate primary to topple Republican Jeff Denham. Former mayor of Riverbank and daughter of Mexican immigrants, Madueno jumped into the race at the urging of Rep. Jackie Speier, D-Calif., who offered to mentor her and help her campaign.
Madueno’s struggled to raise money, admitting that touting her credentials on phone calls doesn’t come naturally and she “doesn’t have a rolodex of millionaires” on file. She’s also experienced her fair share of sexism and racism.
Madueno was recently urged to drop out by a woman who approached her at a campaign event. When she asked why, the constituent said, “We’re not ready for somebody like you.”
“Clearly because of the color of my skin they don’t feel I’m the right fit,” Madueno said, quickly pointing out that the district is 47 percent Hispanic.
Madueno’s the “real deal,” said Speier, she’s “gotten her hands dirty in the district.” But Speier admitted that Madueno’s “got a lot of money against her.”
Confronted with the reality that zero Democratic women could make it to the general, Speier nodded, and criticized the top-two system, saying it could limit Democratic wins “substantially.”
Speier’s a bit “pessimistic” in general about Democrats’ chances of picking up as many seats as they’d hoped to in her home state, referencing the possibility they’ll get locked out in the general.
“There’s seven seats that Hillary Clinton won that are held by Republicans. We were hopeful we’d be able to flip most of them, obviously,” Speier said. “I think we’ll be lucky if we can flip two of them.”
But if the year of the woman doesn’t reach California this year, it will next cycle, Speier said. Women are “super charged,” said Speier, and it started when they “woke up to a president who thinks he can manhandle women.
“They woke, and I don’t think they’re going to fall back asleep,” she said, recalling a similar atmosphere in 1992, also dubbed the year of the woman.
“That’s the year Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein got elected when everybody said you’re not going to elect two Jewish northern California women to U.S. Senate,” Speier said. “You know what triggered that? What triggered that was what happened in 1991 when Anita Hill testified before the U.S. Senate.”
Hill accused Clarence Thomas of sexually harassing her before he was confirmed to the Supreme Court. During the hearing, Hill was asked to provide detail of her allegations repeatedly before a panel of all male senators.
“I remember sitting there watching the television and watching these white balding men interrogate her, and I remember kicking my slipper at the TV,” Speier said.
So “beware the ire of women,” said Speier.
