These 3 women are defining the race to unseat Trump

Three women – House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) – are defining the race to replace Donald Trump.

Just last week, Pelosi directly questioned the president’s relationship with Russian dictator Vladimir Putin; Ocasio-Cortez’ grip and grin image with Sen. Bernie Sanders (D-Vt.) at his presidential campaign rally in New York City launched thousands of Facebook posts; and Warren calmly fended off attacks from eleven of her opponents in a nationally televised Democratic presidential debate.

More than anybody else, Pelosi has been a burr under Trump’s saddle since she became speaker after the 2018 midterm election. She has stymied the president’s obsession to build a wall on the Mexican border and most recently challenged his desire to act to enhance the interests of Putin in Ukraine and in Syria.

Last week, Pelosi challenged the lion in his own den. You have to give her credit. It wouldn’t be easy for even the most hardened politician to walk into the White House, as Pelosi did, stand up to the president, stare him down and tell him to his face that he’s Putin’s puppet.

Speaker Pelosi was slow to start the impeachment inquiry into the president. But since she initiated the process, there has been a significant upsurge in support for the president’s impeachment and removal from office. A new Gallup poll indicated that a majority (52 percent) of Americans now supports Trump’s impeachment and removal. In June, a majority (53 percent) opposed impeachment.

Warren in the last few weeks has emerged as the biggest threat to former Vice President Joe Biden’s campaign to secure the Democratic presidential nomination.

She has run a smooth, steady and mostly mistake-free campaign. In the most recent debate, she had more screen time than any of the other candidates and calmly handled all the flak that came her way during the discussion.

The Real Clear Politics average of national polls of Democratic primary voters reveals that Warren is within striking distance of the frontrunner, Biden, and that she has lapped Sanders.

Warren’s surge in the polls has come at the expense of Sanders. National polls show Warren leading Sanders among the liberal Democrats who fueled Sanders’ 2016 campaign.

Alexandria Ocasio Cortez’ formal endorsement of Sanders on Saturday was a much-needed burst of energy for the Vermont senator’s sagging presidential fortunes.

Even though she is a new member and only 30 years old, Ocasio-Cortez (AOC) has had an outsized influence on national politics in her brief time in Congress. She joins Reps. Ilhan Omar (Minn.), Rashida Talib (Mich.) and Ayanna Pressley (Mass.) in forming “The Squad,” a group of progressive Democratic women who are raising important issues in Congress and on the presidential campaign trail, including the Green New Deal.

Ocasio-Cortez’ rock star status among progressive Democrats explains why her endorsement of Sanders made headlines. Two thirds (65 percent) of the Warren supporters have a favorable opinion of AOC, which means she might be a vehicle to bring former followers of Sanders back into the fold.

It’s no accident that three women have become the driving force behind the effort to unseat the president. Trump has accelerated women’s move from the Democratic to the Republican Party.

The president’s many demeaning statements about women and his appointment of Justice Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court in the face of credible accusations against the jurist of sexual assault have no doubt made many Republican women rethink their party affiliation.  

Midterm election exit polls indicated that Democrats made significant gains among female voters and that these gains were the reason Democrats reclaimed the House majority.

In August a national poll found that women opposed the president’s reelection by a two-to-one margin. Sixty-two percent of all female registered voters said they would vote for a generic Democratic presidential candidate, while only 30 percent said they would vote for Trump.

The end of Donald Trump’s presidency could be the beginning of a new era of female dominance in American government. These three women have lots of clout now, and they might have even more after Election Day next year.

Brad Bannon is a Democratic pollster and CEO of Bannon Communications Research. He is also the host of a radio podcast “Dateline D.C. With Brad Bannon” that airs on the Progressive Voices Network. Follow him on Twitter @BradBannon.