Good morning, Broadsheet readers! Caitlin Clark broke the WNBA rookie record for assists, Taylor Swift gets roped into the discussion of AI and politics, and Hillary Clinton passes the torch to Kamala Harris. Have a lovely Tuesday.
– Glass ceiling. So far in her presidential campaign, Kamala Harris has mostly talked about the issues rather than the possibility that she’ll be the U.S.’s first female president. Perhaps she was just waiting for the right messenger. That person showed up Monday when Hillary Clinton delivered a full-throated endorsement of Harris that put her nomination in historical context at the opening night of the Democratic National Convention.
Clinton was of course expected to become the first female U.S. president in 2016 before her shocking loss to Donald Trump. While President Joe Biden also spoke last night to pass the torch to Harris, in a way, Clinton’s endorsement did the same. The glass ceiling she so often spoke of during her 2016 campaign is now Harris’s to break through. “On the other side of that glass ceiling is Kamala Harris taking the oath of office as our 47th president of the United States,” Clinton told the cheering crowd.
Clinton placed Harris’s nomination in the context of her own campaign. After all, Harris is up against the same opponent. Trump has mocked Harris’s name and her laugh, Clinton noted. “Sounds familiar,” she joked. But the former secretary of state also put Harris’s candidacy in historical perspective, going back to women earning the right to vote, to Shirley Chisholm’s 1972 run for the presidency, to Geraldine Ferraro’s 1984 run as vice president.
“It still takes a village to raise a family, heal a country, to win a campaign,” Clinton said in a nod to her famous line.
“When a barrier falls for one of us, it falls and clears the way for all of us,” Clinton said. Clinton has proven that is true; she was the first woman to be her party’s general election nominee for president so that path was cleared for Harris. Clinton was also the first woman to win the popular vote. If Harris wins the White House, she’ll shatter the ceiling that Clinton first cracked.
Stay tuned for more from the DNC throughout the week.
Emma Hinchliffe
emma.hinchliffe@fortune.com
The Broadsheet is Fortune’s newsletter for and about the world’s most powerful women. Today’s edition was curated by Nina Ajemian. Subscribe here.
ALSO IN THE HEADLINES
- Look what you made her do. In a Truth Social post, Donald Trump seemed to rely on an AI-generated image of Taylor Swift to claim the superstar had endorsed him for president. Swift has not backed any candidate. CNN
- Once upon a time. Romantasy, the genre blending romance and fantasy, has taken off in the publishing industry. “The level of fandom is just massive,” said fantasy author Natania Barron about Sarah J. Maas’s A Court of Thorns and Roses, a fan-favorite romantasy read. Hollywood has yet to catch up—but the genre could be its next Marvel. Bloomberg
- And just like that. SJP by Sarah Jessica Parker, the Sex and the City actor’s shoe brand, is shuttering in the fall after 10 years of business. The flagship store in New York City will stay open until Aug. 25. WWD
- Rookie record. Indiana Fever’s Caitlin Clark broke the WNBA rookie record for assists with 232 so far this season. Her nine assists against the Seattle Storm on Sunday pushed her over the record of 224, set in 1998 by former Sacramento Monarchs player Ticha Penicheiro. ESPN
MOVERS AND SHAKERS
The National Association of Realtors named Nykia Wright chief executive officer; she has been serving as interim CEO since November.
General Catalyst, a venture capital firm, hired Arielle Gross Samuels as chief marketing and communications officer. Most recently, she was global head of marketing at Blackstone.
SalioGen Therapeutics, a genetic medicine company, appointed Kalliopi “Kali” Stasi as chief medical officer. Stasi had been senior vice president of clinical development at Adverum Biotechnologies.
ON MY RADAR
Inside Kamala Harris’s enormous fundraising drive Wall Street Journal
Female-founded company teaches women poker skills for career advancement CBS
Venture capital firms making bets on maternal health Reuters
PARTING WORDS
“I was probably one of 15 people who was a woman and that ratio just didn’t feel right.”
— Sophie Novati, founder of job placement company Formation, on what inspired her to start her own venture after working at Facebook and Nextdoor
