CNN political contributor David Axelrod said Wednesday he believes there will be another president of color after President Barack Obama leaves the White House.
Don Lemon asked Axelrod on CNN’s “New Day,” “Do you think we’ll see another black president, a Hispanic president, a woman president in our lifetime? Meaning in the next 20 to 30 years or so?”
“Absolutely,” said Axelrod, a former senior adviser to Obama, who recently had a lengthy interview with the President as part of The Axe Files podcast series. “I think the remarkability of that has been punctured by the Obama election and now I think you will see that.”
“And you see a country that’s becoming more diverse, so I think you’ll see candidates emerge — blacks, Hispanics, women who will compete for the presidency and some will win,” he added.
A majority of Americans say relations between blacks and whites in the US have worsened under Obama, according to a new CNN/ORC poll.
Axelrod said Obama’s election in some ways paved the way for the possibility of Hillary Clinton, the 2016 Democratic presidential nominee.
“Because Barack Obama had won, the idea of a woman as president seemed less remarkable than it would have previous to that,” he said.
Axelrod also said he believes it is “a good thing” that gender and race will become less of an obstacle for politicians aiming for the White House in the future.
“I think that’s a good thing for the country if it becomes less noteworthy if someone is of a given race or gender but is judged more on the basis of what they have to offer the country,” he said.