Since the country’s first four-year presidential election in 1788, 46 of the United States’ 47 presidents have been white men. The only exception is Barrack Hussein Obama II, the 44th US president, elected for two terms in 2008 and 2012. With a Kenyan father and a white mother, he was the country’s first African American president. Despite Obama’s popularity, anti-Black bias was a major obstacle for him to overcome, as opponents launched racist attacks such as the so-called “birther movement,” a conspiracy theory asserting that Obama, who was born in Honolulu, Hawaii, was not actually born a citizen of the United States. Obama’s presidency coincided with the rise of increasingly conservative alt-right movements in the United States, which some attribute to a backlash against having a Black man serving as president.

In 2016, New York Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton made history by becoming the first woman to secure the presidential nomination of a major political party in the United States. Throughout her campaign, Clinton faced gendered criticism about the sound of her voice, the way she dressed, and her perceived likability—criticisms not usually directed toward male candidates. Clinton ultimately lost the election to Donald Trump by a slim margin despite winning the popular vote.

Clinton faced sexism and bigotry during her campaign, but as a white woman, she did not face racial bias. When California Senator Kamala Harris was elected Vice President in 2020, she was the first Black woman and first South Asian to hold the office. In the Senate (2017-2021), she was the first South Asian woman and second Black woman to serve in that body. As California’s attorney general (2011-2017), Harris was the first woman to be elected statewide in California. In 2024, she was the first woman of color to become a US presidential nominee. Throughout her career, Harris has had many “firsts” in a political field dominated by white men. She has also dealt with the biases such a history entails. During her presidential campaign, Harris faced both racism and sexism, from Trump’s insistence that her name was too difficult to pronounce to criticism that her laugh was too grating. She refused, however, to make this the focus of her campaign, and remained focused on highlighting her qualifications. Still, Trump’s campaign benefited from widespread gender bias, as men made up the largest group that voted across party lines to elect Trump in 2024. Among women voters, race and education level played a significant role, as white, non-college-educated women voted overwhelmingly for Trump, while college-educated women of all ethnic and racial backgrounds voted for Harris (“Gender Differences in the 2024 Vote Choice Are Similar to Most Recent Presidential Elections,” Rutgers University Eagleton Institute of Politics, 28 December 2024).