Democrats need look no farther than Ohio to understand why a woman can win in 2020: Katie Paris (2024)

SHAKER HEIGHTS, Ohio -- You may have heard of me. Well, not me, per say. But moms like me who live in the suburbs.

There’s been an awful lot of talk on TV lately about “suburban women” -- and questions about who we will, or won’t, vote for in 2020. So I want to clear a few things up, starting with the fear that a woman can’t beat Donald Trump.

I get the theory. Hillary Clinton was a woman and she lost. For many observers, the fact that the lone woman to head a major party’s presidential ticket in 243 years didn’t win means we shouldn’t try that again for awhile.

Don’t get me wrong. I understand the fear. We all want to win.

But this read that a woman can’t win or shouldn’t run ignores the reality of the moment we’re in.

The 2018 elections, current polling, and the energy coming from women motivated by the Trump era to run or get involved, all tell us that women are just as -- if not more -- electable than men.

An August USA Today poll showed that 83 percent of Democrats would vote for a woman for president, but among those same people, only 39 percent thought their neighbors would.

It’s time to start trusting in ourselves, and trusting that our neighbors will come around -- because the data show they already are.

Let’s start with an impressive and often overlooked point: The top women running for president in 2020 have never lost an election. The same is not true for the leading male contenders -- not by a long shot.

In 2018, the surge of women running resulted in a surge of women winning. Out of the 41 seats Democrats flipped to regain the majority of the U.S. House of Representatives in 2018, 23 were won by women. Both flipped U.S. Senate seats were won by women. And out of seven governorships that Democrats picked up, you guessed it, the majority were won by women.

In total, 125 women running for Congress and governor last year won their elections. These victories did not just happen on the coasts. Americans elected women to higher office in every region of the country, including in the Midwest, where both Michigan and Kansas elected female governors.

In Ohio, the storyline held. Women on the ballot led to Democratic gains. Out of the six seats Democrats flipped in the Ohio House -- the first Democratic pickups in that chamber in almost a decade -- four were won by women. At a statewide level, Ohio voters elected Melody Stewart to the state Supreme Court, the first African-American woman to be elected to the office.

The momentum behind women’s leadership in Ohio carries all the way to the highest office in the land. A recent Emerson poll shows Elizabeth Warren beating Trump in Ohio by 52-48. This is statistically identical to the matchup of Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders against Trump, 53-47.

On Tuesday, presidential hopefuls will take the debate stage in Westerville, Ohio, a suburb of Columbus. This location is no accident. Suburbs are the new electoral battleground, and suburban women, in particular, were a weak spot for Republicans in 2018.

These women are sick of Republican inaction on gun safety, of policies that leave children locked in cages at the border, and of Trump’s disrespect for women, world leaders, and anyone who disagrees with him. Women who were never engaged before the 2016 election (many of whom are married to Republican men) have come together in their local communities to take action on behalf of issues and candidates that align with their values. And there’s no question that they are the most motivated and empowered when those candidates are women.

That’s why I’ve started a new organization here in Ohio called Red Wine and Blue -- to help suburban women tap into their political power. We’re turning to each other as the antidote to Republicans’ inaction and extremism, and we have a chance to send a powerful message in 2020.

As Ohio voters start lining up behind their preferred candidate, let’s question the refrain that a woman can’t beat Trump and stick to a decision based on who aligns with our values.

Women are running for office all across the country and in all levels of government, and they’re winning. Women voters are shifting their trust to other women to take on the status quo and get things done.

Betting on female candidates up and down the ballot — and women who are motivated to vote for them — just might end up being the best way to take down Trump.

Katie Paris lives in the suburbs of Cleveland with her husband and two young sons. She is the founder of Red Wine and Blue, an organization focused on harnessing the power of suburban women in Ohio.

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