Increasing women’s political power is a multi-site, multiracial, and bipartisan endeavor.

The reality is a legislator has never looked like me. The typical legislator doesn’t generally apply to young, Latina women…that come from working class backgrounds, that are the daughters of immigrants. …That’s not what a legislator has looked like. And so I redefine that experience, I think. With every session, I redefine what it means or what’s acceptable to be a legislator."

One of the other barriers that I saw in running [for office], talking about the economic status and all of that, was the financial aspect of running. So…legislators only make $45,000 a year. …With my husband working for the state, I have always been the breadwinner in our family and so that was something that was really scary to me. …I knew that we would be taking a substantial pay cut [from] me quitting my job and going to run for office. …I remember telling my boss, ‘I can’t run for office because I can’t afford to do that.’ …My boss allowed me to keep my job. And so I worked for him nine months out of the year…and…then the other I just kind of pieced together what I [could] do for him during that time [the legislature was in session]. And so the flexibility that he allows and still paying me was able to break that barrier [to officeholding] down but a lot of people can’t do that."

I’m a regular middle-class person. I didn’t have the luxury of mortgaging my future. I didn’t have a home that I could put up for collateral to run this race, right? I was working full-time when I launched my campaign. …The only reason I could run is because I didn’t have student loans. That was one thing that was maybe a separator from me [and] my peer groups but I am not wealthy [and] well-connected."

I’ve been in the Senate for 12 years and have become one of the highest-ranking Republican women within the state. Throughout that entire time, we’ve talked about what needs to be done to get more women into the party. My female colleagues and I have articulated suggestions to accomplish that goal. However, it can be frustrating at times to see the pace at which real positive change happens. [Interview conducted in May 2022.]"

I only had a two-week period in which I had to decide if I was going to run because, of course, the incumbent decided at the very last minute that he was retiring. And so it didn’t give me very much lead time to figure all this out. But in that two-week period I had to really think about [it]. ‘Does this even make sense for me to run, like all the logistical things? But also, am I going to get a lot of hatred? Am I going to get a lot of pushback because of who I am? Because of what I look like?’ But at the end of the day, the reason that pushed me was because Stacey Abrams was on the ballot that year. I said, ‘Okay, wow, we have a Black woman running at the top of the ticket. She’s running statewide to be governor of the state. So if she can run and if she can be that bold that she thinks that the voters of Georgia will support her to get there, then I should be able to run at least for my small little district seat.’ …It was so important to have her in that role because…if it wasn’t for her taking that bold step, I don’t think I would have made the decision as I had, regardless of everything else that had been presented to me."

We [as Republicans] tend to look at things from a holistic perspective or a collective perspective rather than factions. And so there aren’t any rules that assist or harm women from running for office. If you want to run, you have to qualify like everyone else. You have to campaign like everyone else and I’m seeing that. I think we have a woman running in just about every single race except for this U.S. Senate seat…statewide on down. So I see that we’re definitely growing in that direction. A lot of the women who came in during…the last midterms were Republican women. And so we’re definitely doing our part when it comes to that. …I’m so proud because it’s not because we were provided any specialized lane. It’s because we decided to jump in the lane where the men are and we just beat them."

Sometimes men don’t understand why women need special groups of women – like, ‘Oh, if we had a special group of men, you’d think it was discriminatory.’ It’s because we haven’t been in these positions of leadership and power as long as men have. But I think it’s really, really important that women have sounding boards, that they have mentors, that they have groups that they can go to and share their vulnerabilities and be helped up into the political process. I will tell you that is a major goal of mine."

So certainly I bring my entire lived experience thus far into every meeting with me. I bring the lens of a young woman from Philadelphia who grew up in a single-parent home, who has had and continues to have many positive women in my life starting with my mother and moving from out into the circle. And the most compelling thing is that I think many times when a lot of decisions have been made about schools, about women’s bodily autonomy, about childcare and so much more, when I’m at the budget table with the governor and other leaders, I am mindful that there has never been a woman to sit at that table and fight for these things. So I am able to use my own leadership style, which sometimes entails humor, to just remind the men at the table…how serious these needs are and how we have a responsibility to move sooner [rather] than later. [Interview conducted in August 2022 while McClinton still served as House Minority Leader.]"

I think sometimes, too, as a Black woman or as a Native woman, thinking about going into rural spaces…it does give you pause because you don’t know…if you will be welcomed or what type of response people will have, whether they think that you don’t belong, you don’t know what you’re talking about, you don’t have the education or skills or whatever the case may be."

Maybe the gap that exists is maybe not even necessarily getting women into office but getting women to the next level of office. …Because I do think there are a lot of times…people are really excited to elect a woman for state representative, for school board, for city council, for borough mayor, but then there isn’t necessarily the investment to get them to the next level. …And the recruitment that happens for those positions from the pool of elected leaders, if you will, often falls to men."

Democrats have a list of attacks that they make on Republicans, no matter what — we’re extreme on this or that, abortion, et cetera, et cetera. …They stick more to [an] old white man than they would to a female candidate, right? It’s very hard…for a white man Democrat to attack a woman saying…essentially what you should do when it comes to abortion, what you should do when it comes to you know, childcare, et cetera. …So there is no doubt that there is an electoral advantage, and whoever cracks the code and marries up a strong, qualified female with the resources is going to win…a statewide election [in Pennsylvania]."

What keeps me [in political office]? I’m a Black woman. There is no easier place to be [than in elective office]. There is no more comfortable place to go, right? Black women in corporate America face discomfort every single day and correspondingly less power to actually do something about it, which is an even more, I would say, depressing position to be in. …You recognize that…if you don’t find a solution, then all of these problems will continue to exist that you live with every single day. …Now the question is, would you rather live through it with no hope of gaining control or power? Or would you rather live through it with the hope that you’re building something that will be able to take it on? You are playing that long game, right? I see this as a relay. I also see this as, simultaneously, we are building capacity every single election cycle. So I’m a space holder. I’m keeping a seat warm as the new generation that is more liberal, more progressive…is coming in."