Ive never seen anything like it. Voters care more about electability than anything else.

That statement sums up what appears to be the dominant feeling among Democratic primary voters this cycle. Except that quote, spoken by then-Gov. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) to Newsweek , is from 2004.

Electability has been front and center since former Vice President Joe Biden officially entered the presidential race last week, pitching himself as the person best able to defeat President Donald Trump . He quickly jumped to a wide lead in polls of the Democratic race.

But candidates should beware: History is littered with men (and a woman) who campaigned on electability and eventually lost out. And electability is a measurement that often seems to benefit male candidates .

Few presidential nominating campaigns were as devoted to the electability premise as the 2004 Democratic presidential primaries.

Those who had already cast ballots in Iowa and New Hampshire told us that electability was a big issue, so were going to take just a few moments at the beginning to talk about how the race has changed, NBCs Tom Brokaw said at the beginning of a debate ahead of the South Carolina primary.