■ Democrats face the vexing question of whether a woman can win the White House.

But debates might change Democrats’ views on electability

MIAMI — For months, the names of white men have sat at the top of early Democratic presidential primary polls. On the debate stage this week, the half-dozen women in the field offered up an alternative: themselves.

They did so with different tactics and styles but a shared goal: shaking up assumptions about who is electable in a race for a job that has been held only by men.

While it’s too early in the Democratic nominating process to know whether they succeeded on that front, some of the women emerged as dominant forces on the debate stage. Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren and California Sen. Kamala Harris led the way and were widely seen as among the top performers.

For some Democrats, Hillary Clinton’s loss to Donald Trump was a searing experience that has prompted questions about whether the country is ready to elect a female president or whether the party should even risk testing that proposition in next year’s highstakes election.

In her two White House campaigns, Clinton was always the only woman on the debate stage.

This time around, the female candidates had company.

Debbie Walsh, director of the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University, said she is among those who have heard voters raise doubts about whether Democrats should nominate a woman in 2020.

“This question of electability maybe gets shaken up a little bit as a result of these past two nights,” Walsh said.

Warren stood at center stage on Wednesday, reflecting her standing as the night’s highest polling candidate. Her liberal policy positions also took center stage, driving much of the discussion throughout the night. Warren consciously avoided squabbling with her rivals, seeking to project the strength of a leading candidate.

Harris burst through on night two with a striking exchange with former Vice President Joe Biden, who has led early polling throughout the year. She challenged Biden vigorously, and in personal terms, over his past positions on school busing and his comments citing his work with segregationist senators as an example of a bygone air of civility.

“As the only black person on this stage, I’d like to speak on the issue of race,” Harris said. The crowd fell silent as she then recounted being bused to a desegregated school as a child.

Harris reported raising $2 million in the 24 hours after her debate performance.

Figures provided by the California senator’s campaign indicate that over half of the contributions came from people who had never given to her before.

Elizabeth Warren