Hillary Clinton departs her Washington home, Friday, June 10, 2016, after meeting with Sen. Elizabeth Warren. | AP Photo Women’s groups revel in idea of Clinton-Warren ticket Female leaders say the nation is ready for two women in the White House.

No handwringing here: The possibility of Hillary Clinton picking Sen. Elizabeth Warren as her running mate is lighting up Democrat-aligned women’s groups, who have no qualms about the political risks of a two-woman ticket.

The women who have devoted their careers to getting a woman in the White House say they think the country is ready for two at once — if Clinton decides that Warren is the best choice.


“This would be a dream ticket,” said Andrea Dew Steele, founder of Emerge America, which recruits and trains women to run for political office as Democrats.

As Clinton met with Warren at the presumptive nominee’s home in Washington on Friday, leaders of groups that promote Democratic women and women’s issues said the strong contrast with the hyper-macho rhetoric of Donald Trump, as well as Clinton’s imperative to bring out the progressive base, should ease any doubts about putting another woman on the ticket.

“I think that playing the woman card is gain,” said Eleanor Smeal, president of Feminist Majority Foundation. Her voice hoarse from cheering Clinton’s victory on Tuesday, she noted that Americans “want change and [two women in the White House] is a profound change.”

As the first woman to win a major party’s presidential nomination, Clinton has highlighted the ceiling-shattering nature of her candidacy. In his own historic run, the young, black, cerebral Barack Obama chose in Sen. Joe Biden a more familiar and more experienced white politician. Warren wouldn’t be the same sort of yang to Clinton’s yin. But Clinton need only look to her own husband’s election to know that doesn’t necessarily matter, said Smeal.

“When Bill Clinton ran, he was criticized: Al Gore was too much like him,” she said. “Well, it worked.”

That was also the year, Smeal noted, that voters sent another two-woman ticket to Washington: Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein were both elected in 1992 to represent California in the Senate as Democrats.

In the face of Trump and his messages targeted at white, working-class men, Warren would make the contrast even more stark, women’s group leaders said.

“In a year when the vitriol against women and families on the Republican side is so enormous, having the White House held by a woman — let alone two women — would help shatter their extremism and bring much needed progress on the challenges facing all Americans," said Page Gardner, president of Women's Voices Women Vote Action Fund, which works to turn out unmarried women voters.

It’s not like activists in legacy feminist groups need much prodding to vote for Clinton, even if she ends up sharing the ticket with a man.

“Our members are so enthusiastic about the prospect of Hillary Clinton, such a strong feminist, becoming president,” said Terry O’Neill, president of National Organization for Women and its PAC, which endorsed Clinton in August. “We trust her.”

But that trust isn’t necessarily there among younger voters, including millennial women who backed Sen. Bernie Sanders.

Clinton’s team, Steele said, will “weigh all the factors” to pick the most qualified candidate.

“If they determine and we determine that we need to energize the progressive base,” Steele said, that’s another reason to choose Warren. “Certainly, a lot of people are thinking that that is one of the main factors we have to look at.”

Smeal jokingly pointed to historical precedent to dismiss political concerns about having a woman as a running mate.

“No one’s ever complained that we have two strong women on the ticket,” she said.