Democratic operative Jessica Byrd suggested during a Monday appearance at a Center for American Progress forum that questions asked during the Democratic Party's endorsement process would be illegal if they were asked in a job interview.
Byrd, the founder of Three Point Strategies, appeared as a panelist at a CAP forum called "Beyond the Ambition Gap: Challenging the Systems That Keep Women Off Ballots and Out of Office." The subject of the discussion was how to encourage more women, especially more women of color, to run for office, NTK Network reports.
Byrd had harsh words for the way Democrats currently undertake the process of endorsement.
"I think our endorsement processes have to be turned completely upside down," she said.
"We are asking questions that, if we asked them in a job interview, I actually think would be illegal," she added.
Byrd ran through some of the questions she found most invasive.
"We ask so much about what a person makes, how much they’re going to be able to raise, who their community is, who they know, who their grandfather is," she said.
This elaborate digging, Byrd argued, combined with the serious fundraising requirements of running a modern campaign, made for a "boulder in the path" to successfully encouraging more women to run for office.