Maria Cardona, a Democratic strategist who advised both Barack Obama and Joe Biden, says the United States still is not prepared to elect a woman president.
Cardona, who also worked on Hillary Clinton’s 2008 presidential campaign, told the Irish Independent that reflecting on election night 2016 still brings her to tears a decade later. She was on CNN that November night, initially believing Clinton could still pull out a victory, before the devastating reality set in.
“It was awful, just heart wrenching,” she told the outlet.
“I can’t tell you how many people I run into who say, ‘my goodness, Hillary Clinton would have been such an amazing and transformational present’ and how much the country needed her in that moment,” Cardona continued.
Since that 2016 loss, Kamala Harris remains the only woman to have mounted a presidential run. Harris announced her candidacy in 2019 but dropped out before the primaries. In 2024, she became the Democratic nominee after Biden withdrew, only to lose to Donald Trump.
Cardona praised Harris’s effort under extraordinary constraints. “As much as I want to say that this country is ready to elect a woman president, I don’t think we are, sadly,” she told the Irish Independent, adding that the admission “hurts her soul.”
She elaborated that Harris had put on “the best campaign in 107 days,” and suggested that had Biden stepped down six months earlier, Harris might have built her own campaign rather than inheriting one.
In the viral moment that still haunts Democratic operatives, Cardona recalled being on CNN on election night 2016, holding out hope that Clinton could prevail as results trickled in. The eventual Trump victory shattered what many had expected to be a historic breakthrough for women in American politics. Cardona said she “could cry if she thinks about it too much,” even ten years removed from the outcome.
Cardona has also served as an adviser to Barack Obama and Joe Biden across multiple cycles, giving her a front-row seat to three distinct eras of Democratic presidential politics. Her assessment carries added weight given her proximity to both the first Black president and the first female major-party nominee.
Looking ahead to 2028, Cardona told the outlet that “no one has the upper hand” in the next presidential contest. Trump, despite recent social media provocations, faces a constitutional barrier to another run. The 22nd Amendment limits presidents to two elected terms, and Trump has already won in 2016 and 2024.
That has not stopped Trump from toying with the idea publicly. At the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, he donned his red hat and declared: “I won three times, now I’m going to do it again.” He also shared an AI-generated image on Truth Social depicting himself in a blue suit and red tie beneath the words “Trump 2028 Make America Great Again,” surrounded by supporters in MAGA hats.
Cardona’s comments arrive amid broader Democratic soul-searching about gender and electability following Harris’s defeat, with the party facing questions about whether any female candidate can overcome the structural barriers she encountered.
The next general elections will be held in the United States in 2028.