Nicole Gaudiano

USA TODAY

WASHINGTON — To many Americans, 2016 seemed the moment when voters would make history by electing the first woman president.

No woman, of course, had ever come closer than Hillary Clinton, the first female nominee of a major party. But since she couldn’t shatter what she's called the "highest, hardest glass ceiling,” now the question remains: If not her, who could be Madam President?

For some, that prospect now seems a distant dream.

“It could be another generation, another 20 years, before someone gets as close as Hillary did,” said Kristine Holland, 29, a contract administrator from Delanco, N.J., who volunteered for Clinton. “I thought finally, girls are going to see, yes, they can be president.”

Experts typically look to the Senate and governorships as the bench for potential candidates. A record number of women – 21 – will serve in the Senate next year. But that represents an increase of only one member, and the total number of women in Congress will stay the same. The number of women governors, meanwhile, will drop from six to five.

“This is part of the challenge,” said Debbie Walsh, director of Rutgers’ Center for American Women and Politics. “Our bench is small when it comes to potential candidates.”

But Dianne Bystrom, director of Iowa State University’s Center for Women and Politics, said she sees cause for optimism for both Republican and Democratic women in the precedents set over the last 16 years. Since the 2000 election cycle, a woman has run for a major political party nomination for president in every election. This year, women sought both the Republican (businesswoman Carly Fiorina) and Democratic (Clinton) nomination.

“That’s what makes me feel hopeful for the future, because we have this track record now,” she said.

Some contenders regularly mentioned by political experts include:

Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, 67, a Democrat.

She’s an outspoken, progressive icon with an economic populist message and a national following that could help her raise money. A former Harvard Law School professor, she is an advocate for the working class and consumers and has demonstrated a delight in taking on Wall Street. The U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is her brainchild. But she would be 72 by the time of her inauguration if she were elected in 2020 and her views could be considered too far to the left for many voters.

South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, 44, a Republican.

“Rising star” is a term often used for Haley, the first woman governor of her state, the nation's second Indian-American governor, and the youngest current governor in the country. She’s conservative with traditional Republican positions, but she received national attention for leading the call to remove the Confederate flag from the State Capitol following the Charleston church shooting in 2015. Though she was a critic of Donald Trump’s during the presidential campaign, he has picked her to be the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, a top administration post that could give her foreign policy experience — or backfire, depending on the success of the Trump presidency.

Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, 56, a member of the state’s Democratic-Farm-Labor Party.

A former county attorney, Klobuchar in 2006 became the first woman elected as a senator in Minnesota. She values pragmatism and is known for working across the aisle on issues such as combating human trafficking. She is among senators with the highest approval ratings from their constituents. But she is from a smaller state and may not have strong national name recognition yet.

New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez, 57, a Republican.

Martinez is the first female governor of her state and the country's first Hispanic woman governor, whose Mexican heritage could help her appeal to a growing Latino demographic. A former district attorney, she is in her second term as governor and just ended her term as chairwoman of the Republican Governors Association. But she was the subject of controversy last year when police responded to a noise complaint at a hotel party she was attending and questions were raised about her sobriety.

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, 49, a Democrat.

Gillibrand took over Clinton’s former Senate seat in 2009 when Clinton became secretary of State. She has worked hard to raise money for other women candidates and has taken on bipartisan causes. She didn’t have the votes to advance her bipartisan proposal to remove sexual assault cases from the military chain of command, but her effort put her at the forefront of a major national issue. She also may need more national name recognition and could be branded a party insider.

Women disappointed in 2016 election results get 'Ready to Run'

There are those who dare to dream of a Michelle Obama candidacy, fueling the hashtag #Michelle2020. Political experts are taking the First Lady at her word that she won’t run, but Bystrom said Obama is on her list of “Democratic women to watch.”

In the future, both parties likely will be looking at their younger leaders in their 40s and 50s, rather than 60s and 70s, Bystrom said. The candidate should be “aspirational” with experience in business or government, but perhaps not a decades-long record that’s open to attacks, she said.

“Every election cycle is different,” Bystrom said. “What might be someone’s strength in one year could be a weakness in another. It really depends on where the political winds blow.”

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