Hillary Clinton is currently the Democratic Party's front-runner for the presidential nomination. As a former first lady, New York senator, and secretary of state, her political experience in domestic and foreign policy is unrivaled among the other Democrats and Republicans in the presidential race. But more than two decades of life in the public spotlight has also brought on many attacks, missteps, scandals, and intense scrutiny. In an election year when many voters want someone to shake up Washington, her experience isn't always seen as a positive. Like in 2008, when Clinton lost the bid to an inspiring young senator from Illinois, Clinton faces a formidable opponent in Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders. Sanders, a Democratic socialist who promises a political revolution, has especially swept America's Millennials off their feet with promises of tuition-free college and consequences for the big banks that triggered the Great Recession. But if elected, Clinton, who considers herself a "progressive who gets things done," will become America's first female commander-in-chief — a fact that is also revolutionary in American politics.

As the primary race heats up, Cosmopolitan.com spoke to four Millennial women who support Clinton about why they believe she is the most qualified presidential candidate, whether they feel pressure to vote for Sanders, and what effect sexism has had on her campaign.

Why do you support Hillary Clinton?

Lydia Xia, 21, junior at University of California — Berkeley and campus outreach director for Ready for Hillary: I feel like in comparison to Bernie, Hillary is definitely much more moderate, and I really identify with her platforms and the way she approaches the issues and her policies, especially when she is talking about how we need more moderate reform for education or health care or gun control. All of those things are very realistic.

Ace Portis, 29, social justice fundraiser in San Francisco: I think the investment in women's leadership is critical to achieving a more just and equal nation. I believe that not only does Hillary Clinton exemplify female leadership, but she as a human being is the best person to lead this country. While I don't think she's a perfect candidate, I do believe that over time, she's shown and proven her ability to remain open to different ideas and people.

Stacey Doornbos, 31, marking director in New York City: I fell in love with Hillary Clinton back when she gave her LGBT speech in 2011 in Geneva and the way she talked about gay people and gay families as being completely acceptable. She's fighting for gay families like mine. We've had a kid, but before marriage equality happened this past year, it was my fear to cross the state line with my child. Once I cross the state line, my parenting rights would be up for grabs, and if I get transitioned to another state, there's a chance I can get fired just for being out. She addresses those fears. She's fighting for religious freedom, she's fighting for the Black Lives Matter movement, she's fighting for those who are struggling with poverty. She isn't creating this situation where we're getting angry because the recession hit and we all got hit and we need to blame someone. She's trying to raise everyone up.

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How do you think Clinton will help women?

Radhika Mathur, 25, PhD candidate for Biological & Biomedical Sciences at Harvard in Boston and moderator of the Hillary Clinton subreddit: Besides the policies, just having a woman president will be huge, and I think that is something that we should recognize and we should appreciate. Gender does matter. We can't just pretend it doesn't, and we can't say that the playing field is even just because it's 2016 now. I also think that this whole campaign has really highlighted how much sexism there really is right now toward her, and just watching her fight through it and take it all and yet refuse to get knocked out has been inspiring to me as a woman.

Doornbos: There's nothing more symbolic than seeing a woman walk down and accept being a president and make that stand, and having her husband stand next to her as the one who's supporting her. Even in Hollywood — which is like the most liberal place in our country — even there, women are standing next to the men, getting less money and supporting the men in the main lead roles. What would it be for our country to have a woman accept that and see, physically, her husband standing next to her? I think she can say all that she wants about her support for women and I believe every single word, but it's that picture in my head — you know, my daughter will see that.

How do you respond to the criticism that "you're voting for her because she's a woman and that's sexist," or that Clinton is "playing the gender card"?

Doornbos: People seem to think that her bringing up gender is a problem, and I just think that's a really ridiculous argument because no, you cannot separate Hillary Clinton from her gender. You see her, and you see a woman. You can't make the negative of her gender aspect go away, so why should we pretend that the positives aren't there?

Mathur: I think it's really frustrating and it's very disingenuous. I think unless a woman is actually going to vote for Carly Fiorina or Sarah Palin, they are not just voting for a woman because she's a woman. There are very few people who would do that.

Xia: We have first woman astronauts, first woman engineers. Why aren't we going to revel in the fact that there might be first woman president? Men have been the default in many positions in this country. So the fact that we are selecting a qualified female candidate I would not say is sexist; rather, we are recognizing our history with sexism in America and saying: "This is important." This is not the only reason why we're voting for her, but this is definitely something in the backdrop that influences how we feel about Hillary.

Do you feel like there's pressure among your peer group to vote for Sanders over Clinton?

Doornbos: Definitely. I know one person who is going to Hillary, and everybody else is feelin' the Bern, which sounds like an STD to me. [Student debt] does dominate where you're going to live, how you're going to live, if you can go out with your friends, and while for many people, gay issues don't affect your everyday life, being a woman might not affect your everyday life — those student loan payments do. Bernie addresses that issue directly, and he gets angry about it as a lot of my friends are very angry about it. So I get the reason you'd want to feel the Bern.

But I do think that Hillary addresses those issues in a way that is practical and in a way that we can get out of the situation we are in right now with college and college debt. But when you're angry about that bill that comes in once a month and you want someone to fix it and he says that he can get you free college, that sounds pretty alluring, you know? That sounds kind of like the golden chocolate bar in Willy Wonka. It sounds magical. But to me, she addresses that need and she addresses many others all combined that will make my life better.

Mathur: On Reddit especially, it has been really bad in that if you post anything pro-Hillary at all, you are first accused of not being a real person, just because they don't think Hillary supporters actually exist. They accuse you of being a paid campaign staffer. Everything that's pro-Hillary is immediately downvoted. There's a lot of manipulation going on and in which these Sanders supporters really understand [Reddit's] algorithms and they're able to make it seem like everyone on Reddit supports Sanders, even if it's not necessarily true.

Does the stigma or pressure alter how you express your politics or you express support for Hillary Clinton?

Portis: I think that there is a sense in this country, especially among young progressives, that you have to be countercultural in order to have a real analysis of what's happening. It's kind of that Gen X feeling of being radical just for radical's sake. As opposed to being able to say, "Well, actually, I like Hillary Clinton, yes, you know, there are things that she needs to improve on." You then become labeled someone who is supporting the establishment.

When you talk about women leading, it's very interesting that all of a sudden then, there becomes a counterculture of males who think they're brazen and new. It's like, wait a minute — we've been fighting to get to a place where women are seen as equals. And the minute we actually have a foothold to possibly make this happen, then all of a sudden we need a white, old, Jewish man to be the counter-narrative. That in itself is sexism to me.

Doornbos: I do have to be careful about how excited I get about Hillary, especially on social media, because so many people are pro-Bernie. All of a sudden you have to defend why you're pro-Hillary. I actually thought coming into this election having a woman running who will probably win would make the country — especially young white liberal women — thrilled. I thought everybody would be wearing Hillary hats and Hillary T-shirts and counting down the days to see a woman in the White House, but that's just not what's happening. In fact, most of my white liberal woman friends are all feelin' the Bern.

Some progressives are concerned Clinton's vocal support for legislation in the '90s that targeted communities of color and worry about her previous opposition to gay marriage. Do these problematic stances bother you?

Portis: I think as a black lesbian — those two things are interconnected to me, so while I was extremely proud to see, while as secretary of state, her beautiful and eloquent speech to the UN High Commission on LGBT rights, it also felt like there was a piece missing. And so I think the most public fight has been around black liberation. I think she's absolutely the right candidate and has proven that she can work through the framework of where we're trying to move toward black liberation.

I think if we look back at the '90s and the flock of people who had just really terrible ideologies around welfare reform or the prison industrial complex or LGBT rights, we'd be talking about the majority of the country.

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Doornbos: Yeah, I think the '90s, for people who were different and people who were poor, sucked. They sucked hard. I am very lucky to have been a child during that decade, and I do understand that if you lived through that decade as an adult, that would be hard to forgive. But, just like most of the country, my parents included, they were able to watch people like Hillary struggle with the same things they struggled with and grow. It was Hillary and Barack making their public statements that were pro-gay that helped my parents also have that revelation. So while I understand [the anger], I have to appreciate that she transitioned with the culture and helped my own family transition into thinking that being gay is OK.

How do you feel about her relationship with Wall Street?

Doornbos: I'm a person who views Wall Street as a necessary evil in America. I think, in fact, having a relationship with Wall Street is a positive thing as you become president. You know how it works and you know how you can manipulate it in terms of, let's say, the car bailout. It saved companies that have employed hundreds of people when needed. I do think Wall Street should be regulated a little bit more, but you can't have the Land of the Free without Wall Street, unfortunately.

Xia: It does concern me. When you are getting money from corporations and from organizations, you have an invested interest to protect this support. In comparison, Bernie is saying he's more able to tax the rich because he doesn't have any ties. However, we've seen in the past even the establishment candidates are able to tax the rich — it's just probably a lower amount or reasonable taxation. I see that it is something she has to work against, but overall, she's a very qualified candidate.

Does the email scandal bother you?

Doornbos: It didn't bother me at all. One, a lot of secretary of states have done the same thing. No. 2, I think we all knew there was going to be a scandal with Hillary running. We just kind of had to wait it out to figure out what the Republicans were going to find. I think that she knew how to keep the country safe, has kept the country safe, and will continue to keep the country safe, and I don't think the email scandal will affect that.

Mathur: I think that it's just a manufactured controversy like many of the others. Her supporters are loyal to her. We believe her, we trust her, we know her, we've known her for 20 years. We've watched her face scandal after scandal, and we're going to stand by her.

What do you think about the criticism of her being called an establishment politician?

Doornbos: I think it's funny, because as presidents go in the past, people wanted someone who had history, who had foreign policy experience, who has been around the block, and I understand in this election with how hard our country has been hit, everyone is looking for a candidate that would change things rather drastically, as we can see with Trump. But I want someone who knows the international community, knows what's going on overseas, has a good grasp of our political system, and who isn't going to make large promises that may not be able to be fulfilled. I want someone who can tell me what they're running on, what their platform is, and I want their platform to be something that can hopefully come true with bipartisan voting in the Senate and the Congress. I don't want someone to promise me free college. I want someone to tell me what can actually happen.

What do you think of the criticism that she sounds scripted, robotic, or inauthentic?

Xia: That's very wrong. Her whole life and everything she's faced and everything she's done and all her accomplishments — I have no words to explain how moving those things are and how inspiring she is. When they say she's shrewd or when she's naggy or that when she speaks she's very calculated, I do not think those would be the same sort of criticisms for, let's say, President Obama.

Doornbos: I think if it were a man, there wouldn't be any discussion about it at all. I think people connect women to being very emotional, being very motherly, and she's a woman who likes to tell it how it is and likes to be factual and likes to be blunt, and just because she may have characteristics of a man, she's seen in a negative light. The truth is if she was running as a mom-type and as an emotional type, there's not way she would get voted in. It's a catch-22.

Follow Prachi on Twitter.

Prachi Gupta Prachi Gupta is an award-winning journalist based in New York.

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