Jim Wilson/The New York Times
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Wife. Widow. Daughter.
For decades in American politics, successful female candidates often belonged to political dynasties, following in the footsteps of a husband or father and relying on their famous last names to reassure voters. That has shifted in recent years: Few if any of the women who won new House seats in November came from powerful political families, and none of the six female presidential candidates do, either.
With Hillary Clinton saying last week that she would not run for president, Mrs. Clinton became both a trailblazing figure and a transitional one. She rose to prominence as the wife of Bill Clinton, as he led Arkansas and then the nation. Her work as first lady helped her become a senator from New York. Over time, because of her own accomplishments, she advanced: presidential candidate, secretary of state, the first woman to be nominated by a major party for the White House.
With Mrs. Clinton not planning to be the seventh woman running in 2020, an endlessly debated question of 2016 — did some voters resist a woman or this woman? — can be tested with women who do not have her political baggage or what turned out to be her establishment stigma.
These women, such as Senators Amy Klobuchar and Kamala Harris, had significant careers in public service in their home states before reaching Washington, and they are now running for president with messages that aim to appeal broadly across ideological and gender lines. Another 2020 candidate, Senator Elizabeth Warren, had an admired career as a law professor before her consumer protection policy interests drew her into government. Most of the women who ran for House, Senate and governor in 2018 had worked their way up professional or political ladders without a male relation going first.
[Check out the Democratic field with our candidate tracker.]Representative Debbie Dingell, Democrat of Michigan, who succeeded her husband in Congress in 2015, says she believes that she and Mrs. Clinton are emblematic of changing times for women in politics. “I do think I’m that transition,” she said. “Some people would like to say she got it because she had the last name,” referring to her seat in Congress. “But I have my own strong qualifications, and I want people to judge me on what I do.”
Her husband, John Dingell, who died last month, represented her district for 59 years before she ran for office in 2014; his father had served before him. But Ms. Dingell said she worked to establish her own record of accomplishments. She rose at General Motors before she met her husband, kept her career after they married, and headed commissions on a range of issues in Michigan. She was offered entree into Democratic politics in 2000 initially by the president of the United Automobile Workers union, whom she knew from General Motors. When she ran, she said she asked her husband, to his dismay, not to appear at her events.
Ms. Dingell said she was the first woman to succeed her husband in Congress while he was still…
