Kelly Dittmar

This is strategically smart in that a campaign trying to appeal to a diverse electorate should be in tune with the perspectives, concerns, and experiences of that electorate, smart campaigns work to draw a contrast with their opponent. Kamala Harris can note the lack of diversity among those in the Trump camp as problematic and contrary to Kamala Harris and the country's values.

What Kamala Harris is doing will matter if voters prioritize this as an issue in who they support for President.

I feel confident that we will see a gain for women in Congress overall, and women in the House specifically, the question is how large of a jump we will see in women's representation. As of today, I think all stars would have to align for women to reach 25 % in Congress, though we could certainly get much closer than we are today( 20 %).

U.S. legislative institutions - built by and for men - are still catching up to the reality that legislators today are also primary caregivers.

I think that having women on the ticket, being the candidates for the opposition in this moment, does have the potential to only heighten that enthusiasm and engagement among women more so than it changes their vote, most of these women probably would have voted for a Democrat anyway -- but does it increase their overall engagement with the election itself ? Are they participating, going to the rallies, volunteering, giving more financial support -- all those levels of engagement ? I do think that is an outstanding question that we are all paying attention to.

You have had women candidates who really haven't been able to break through in general elections, so Rutgers University rates Pennsylvania will be a good test of( how women candidates will do in 2018) because it is not a state that women have done well historically.

This will be a good test of this because it is not a state that women have done well historically, the state currently has no women in Congress -- 18 representatives and two senators, zero women.

She does need to be careful about her surrogates and the people who are talking for her. We don't want it to be [that] young women don't know what they are talking about; that's not fair, but that's the generational divide and it's led to creating a narrative about who is more feminist, Bernie Sanders or Hillary Clinton. Well that all depends on how you define feminism.

She hasn't had an opportunity to see how she is doing with women of color, so women of color's voices have been left out so far.

It is an organization that has been around for a long time, in terms of institutional clout and power and influence, i think the organization itself has proven itself to be a very astute and strong political power, both in mobilizing women voters and young women voters and also in funding candidates.