Column

It Will Be Hard to Get Over What Happened to Elizabeth Warren

I’ve had to come to terms with America’s sexism again and again

Jessica Valenti
GEN
Published in
3 min readMar 4, 2020

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Elizabeth Warren on February 29, 2020, in Columbia, South Carolina. Photo: Sean Rayford/Getty Images

II knew going into Super Tuesday that Elizabeth Warren was unlikely to win big. I had prepared myself for that. What did take me by surprise, though, was just how poorly she fared: Even in her home state of Massachusetts, she finished third.

On Thursday, Warren announced that she was dropping out of the race.

It’s enough to make me feel, well, despairing: that we had the candidate of a lifetime — someone with the energy, vision, and follow-through to lead the country out of our nightmarish era — and that the media and voters basically outright erased and ignored her.

Don’t tell me this isn’t about sexism. I’ve been around too long for that.

Pundits will all have their theories; fears over “electability” will likely be their #1 explanation. Don’t tell me this isn’t about sexism. I’ve been around too long for that.

Even just supporting Warren has come with an unbearable amount of misogynist condescension. I’m tired of being told that I’m a single-issue voter because I care about a candidate’s gender, even if it’s not the only…

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Jessica Valenti
GEN
Writer for

Feminist author & columnist. Native NYer, pasta enthusiast.