Gender and Race in the 2008 Presidential Primary Campaign
This paper analyzes the unprecedented role of race and gender in the 2008 Democratic presidential primary, focusing on the candidacies of Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama. Drawing on contemporary newspaper accounts from the Washington Post and the New York Times, the paper explores how African-American voters in South Carolina weighed their loyalties, how Obama navigated racial identity as a biracial candidate from outside the traditional black political tradition, and how Clinton strategically emphasized gender to consolidate women voters. The paper also examines the racial tensions that emerged between the two campaigns in January 2008, including the controversy over Clinton's remarks about Lyndon B. Johnson and the Civil Rights Act.
- Introduction: A Historic Primary Field: Historic nature of the 2008 Democratic primary field
- African-American Voters and the Clinton–Obama Choice: Black voters in South Carolina weigh race and gender
- Obama's Racial Identity and Political Style: Obama's conciliatory approach to racial identity
- Clinton, Gender, and the Women's Vote: Clinton uses gender strategy to win women voters
- Racial Tensions on the Campaign Trail: Racial controversy erupts between the two campaigns
- Conclusion: Race and gender reshape American presidential politics
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What makes this paper effective
- It grounds every claim in contemporaneous journalistic sources, giving the analysis an immediacy and documentary quality appropriate to a current-events essay written during the campaign itself.
- The paper balances macro-level analysis (the historic significance of the primary field) with micro-level evidence (individual voters in South Carolina beauty salons), making abstract arguments about race and gender concrete and human.
- It treats both candidates even-handedly, devoting roughly equal attention to the racial dynamics surrounding Obama and the gender dynamics surrounding Clinton before showing how the two threads collide in the final section.
Key academic technique demonstrated
The paper demonstrates effective use of journalistic secondary sources as primary evidence. Rather than simply summarizing news articles, the writer quotes specific reporters and subjects, then interprets those quotations to build an argument about identity politics. This source-integration technique — quote, attribute, analyze — is a foundational skill in undergraduate social-science writing.
Structure breakdown
The essay opens by establishing historical context, then moves through three analytical layers: voter attitudes on the ground, candidate strategy and identity management, and inter-campaign racial conflict. The conclusion is implicit rather than formal, ending on the Edwards quotation to underscore the controversy. The chronological arc (January 2007 through January 2008) gives the paper a narrative spine that holds the evidence together.
Introduction: A Historic Primary Field
The 2008 presidential campaign in the United States was unique in that never before had voters in the Democratic primaries been offered a choice between a woman candidate and an African-American male candidate. It can be safely stated that never before had race and gender played such a major role in American presidential politics. While the Republican candidates were all white males, the major Democratic candidates included two men — African-American Barack Obama and Caucasian John Edwards — and one woman, former First Lady and New York Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton.
In January 2007, Washington Post reporter Dan Balz wrote, "For all the potential history-in-the-making of their candidacies, neither Clinton nor Obama enters the campaign primarily because of race or gender" (Balz 2007). Balz went on to note that Obama, the son of a Kenyan father and a white American mother, was not the first African-American candidate to enter the presidential primary field. Jesse Jackson ran in 1984 and was seen more as breaking a racial barrier than seriously contending for the presidency. Obama's appeal, Balz wrote, "appears not fundamentally based on his race."
Clinton, Balz continued, had ascended to near the top of the Democratic field "not principally because she is a woman" but rather because she was part of the Bill Clinton family and because, as First Lady, she had been more of an activist than most first ladies are expected to be. That having been said, there was "no way" one could safely underestimate the "significance of race and gender in the coming campaign," the writer asserted.
Works Cited
Balz, Dan. "Race and Gender Make Democrats' Field Historic." Washington Post, 17 Jan. 2007, www.washingtonpost.com.
Nagourney, Adam. "Race and Gender Are Issues in Tense Day for Democrats." The New York Times, 14 Jan. 2008, www.nytimes.com.
Scott, Janny. "A Biracial Candidate Walks His Own Fine Line." The New York Times, 20 Dec. 2007, www.nytimes.com.
Seelye, Katharine Q. "Clinton-Obama Quandary for Many Black Women." The New York Times, 14 Oct. 2007, www.nytimes.com.
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