Sen. McCaskill Says Clinton’s Formal Nomination Made Her Miss Her Mom

PHILADELPHIA – She wasn’t in a box or a suite or with other senators. When Hillary Clinton officially became the first woman nominated for president by a major party Tuesday, Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO) was on the floor of the Wells Fargo Arena with the Missouri delegation announcing the vote total from her state.

“I wasn’t going to miss that moment on the floor,” McCaskill told TPM in
a sit-down interview. “I will tell you my overwhelming emotion at the
moment was ‘I really miss my mom.'”

McCaskill said as the reality of the first woman nominee has set in and as she has talked with other women, she has realized her reaction was not that unique.

“I think it is interesting because I have been talking to women about it
today, and I think that reaction was more common than people realize
because the women that were in the hall that are middle age or older,
most of us had mothers that began wagging their finger at us when we
were very young, instructing us that we could do anything and that we could
take over the world and that we could be president,” McCaskill said.

McCaskill said growing up, her mom encouraged her to be part of the political process.

“My mom was really politically active. She wasn’t a big deal or anything,
but I thought everyone who was 10 years old stuffed envelopes. I only
found out later it was just in my family we had to stuff envelopes.”

McCaskill said from the floor she felt like the country was on the verge of making history with the first woman president.

“I had this incredible wave of emotion about how incredibly happy I was. I
mean I talk about it, and I get choked up not just that Hillary Clinton
was nominated, but I was here and part of it, and that I really do
think our country is going to finally do this,” McCaskill said.