State Voices

[The friendliness of political institutions] affects [recruitment, success, and retention] a lot. This is not rainbows and unicorns. This is hardcore gritty work, right? And sometimes not having the support, not having a friendly face, not having the person to give you a hug or thumbs up or tell you how great you are – this work can get, you can get weary. And it can wear you down to where you just don’t want to do it anymore because people are talking about what you say, what you wore, your lipstick, your hair, every little thing. And sometimes it just gets too exhausting."

[Emerge NV] taught me a lot. It taught me a lot about myself, about being a woman, about being a Black woman, about other women’s views of Black women. It was a very eye-opening experience and it taught me a lot. …And the program has a lot of support here in the State of Nevada."

Money matters a whole lot. Pay somebody. That’s what I always say. We’re just so dependent on volunteers. We ought to pay people for doing this work [of supporting women in office]. It’s valuable work. It’s work that makes a difference in all that we do. So we need to pay people and recognize that people have – their time is worth something. And more than just a thank you."

There was just a group of us women…an ad hoc group of women, we [would] get together and talk and lament to some extent. And we just decided we were going to look for capable women candidates on our own. It was not organizationally-based, which I think sometimes gives you maybe the best kind of input. …[They] were relationships established on a more personal basis. They weren’t through Sally’s List or any of these more formal training initiatives. They were women that we knew that had worked with that had the desire and really had the willingness to do the hard work and really were capable of doing a good job."

I think that we have a system…that is so male dominated, that is so unconcerned about creating diversity of any kind that the role that women can play is becoming more and more minimized. …I just think there’s this mindset of those who have some power now to not support – I don’t want to say they go on the offense to minimize the role [of women], but they certainly don’t do anything to uplift the engagement of women or encouragement of women in the process. …So unfortunately without some larger intervention by somebody, …I don’t think that things will change much."

[Candidates] have to understand that…campaigns are physical spaces, digital spaces and personal spaces. And that oftentimes the political violence is hitting you at all three. And so for our younger women, for Black women, specifically women of color, for our LGBTQ+ candidates and things of that nature, they get it the worst almost from the jump."

I took a pay cut to run for office. And I haven’t seen growth in my salary, and that has impacted our household where my husband’s income has been increasing for the last seven years and mine hasn’t. And you know, my income potential,…outside of running for office, as a lawyer is a lot higher. I could be making more money. So I made the choice not to, but if you were a single woman or…a single head-of-household, [it] could be very challenging to do that. If you had other obligations like high student loan debt, which many Black women do, that can be challenging to be able to manage the income and your household with that. [Interview conducted April 2022.]"

I talk a lot about the fact that…right now there are only 253 people with similar experiences with the job that you are doing. …And maybe you break it down into some other numbers so there’s maybe some 28, 29 that are people of color, and then there’s this other factor, …so there are only a few people who know your job and know what you’re going through. So sometimes it may be hard to go home to your family and decompress and debrief because they don’t understand, right? …They want to be supportive but they may not really understand what you’re going through. So sometimes the best infrastructure that’s there is us. [Interview conducted April 2022.]"

There are some formal groups [to support women in politics] that have formed like Represent [PA], Emerge, She Can Win – which is focused on electing Black women. [The] informal structure [is] probably even more supportive, right, or more meaningful. And that’s the circle of already-elected women, not just Black women but elected women. …During the first two, three years of me being elected [and] even recently, when women are considering running but they have children, I’m usually the one that everybody points to to talk about [it]. I did a couple of workshops…[on] finding the time to manage and not feeling guilty when you do certain things like wake your kids up because you just got back at nine o’clock from a meeting but you want to say good night to them. And all those kinds of things that you go through when you are trying to balance being an elected official and being an engaged mom, and whether you can do it. So I’m usually the person that’s there for that group of women looking to run but have children and want to figure [out] if they can make this work. I get that call regularly. And I’m sure that there are other women [that] are recommended for folks to talk to about different aspects of this life, right? What does it look like? How do you balance it? How do you engage your spouse? How do you give your spouse the support they need so that you can be out doing what you got to do?"

I think that [Democratic Party leaders] are becoming more and more of a facilitator [for women in politics] because they realize they want to win races. Women are winning the races right now. And in the City of Philadelphia, Black women are winning these races right now. And so I think there is a lot of momentum and they – I would say at least that the party leaders are riding that momentum. [Interview conducted April 2022.]"

Represent [PA] has helped a number of women in Pennsylvania and closed the gap in funding that they needed to put out mailers or put up window signs or whatever it may be. And I’ve made a couple of calls like, ‘Hey, we need to help this particular woman because she’s this close. But she needs a little bit more. I know you gave already, can you give her a little more?’ And Represent has listened to that. So I would say that…they’ve been listening to the folks they already put in. Well, who else can we help? And then I think it’s helped [with] leverage. …[When] I go back if I have extra money that I can give to women who are running, I look at that Represent list. Let me see who else I can help and give them just a little bit more, or who can I help fundraise for [or] maybe help them in their district now that I’m one of the more senior elected women from eastern Philadelphia to be able to help them get over that finish line. And how can I be supportive of those women who are running to grow our ranks? …The validation, right? …I rely on Represent that they’ve done the vetting and this woman is someone that we can get behind and has a great chance of winning."

We talk about the Reid machine and…keep in mind that so many of the people who are part of that team are women. And I think that there was an incredible amount of respect and understanding of the power of women leadership and encouraging women to run for office and providing them the support and the tools in order to be successful. And women decision-makers and executors in leadership positions helping [to] make that happen."