State Voices

One thing I discovered in running for Congress is how expensive running for office is. You know, I never really understood why it was always people who were wealthy that [were] running for office, or people who [have] trust funds. …It was extremely eye-opening about how many sacrifices I had to personally make to be able to personally sustain the race. And I’m not talking about self-funding the race, I’m talking about..just being able to pay my bills and to get gas in my car to go to events. …For example, I had to move back in with my grandmother so I could no longer pay rent and save that money. And then I had to really just cut down on a lot of personal expenses. But the seat was something I was extremely passionate about, and so I was willing to make that sacrifice."

I think there are still men out there who don’t think a woman should be in office, but of course they are not going to verbalize that. And I think women, I’m going to point the fingers to us, where we say, ‘Go women, yes,’ and then we’re like, ‘But not her.’ …So we have to change our mindset, women and men, when it comes to statewide races."

In general, women feel they are not fully equipped to run for office. Studies show that if we’re not checking all the boxes, we rule ourselves out. And it’s the same for Hispanic women. More than ever before, the political arena is a bloody sport. As mothers, we are protectors and nurturers, and we consider many factors: including the time away from our children and how the political attacks will affect our family. If we feel the impact will be harmful, many women will just say, ‘Forget it.’"

I think when you look at older caucuses or communities that got political power twenty years ago, it’s majority men. …But I think here it was different because we started [the Asian American Caucus] in this kind of wave of women in politics. We started in this time where women are better candidates, …we’re more electable. So because we’re a newer caucus since our growth happened in this period, we actually are majority-[women]. …So it is very different within the Asian American caucus, I would say, than within the Black and Latino caucuses where they come from a much older political trajectory that included their initial founders being men. And I think, you know, the politics and my identity of the initial founders of caucuses is really influential to the conversation I’ve had with a number of other firsts. …The fact that we were founded by two women, right, myself and Theresa Mah. …We’re both first women. We’re both first younger women and we’ve pretty progressive lefty women. So the culture of our politics and then the culture of who we brought in with us…and the culture of our seniority within the caucus is very different than other caucuses. [Interview conducted in March 2022.]"

[It’s important that] us as [women understand] what our power is. …I think it’s a reason why people have not told me what my power is because they know that I could do a lot of damage with it, as far as [doing] more good. …I’m learning it slowly but surely, so I plan on doing more of that good trouble damage for the people that I serve. …That’s why we have to really cultivate and educate those who may be looking at or just want to understand what these spaces mean when you hold them because, clearly, the majority of the people who are here – the white men – they understand it and they use it. Whereas for myself and another young woman that I serve with, we just do the work and then we realize, ‘Oh we can actually do that’ because no one is going to tell you you can, because they already know what they can do."

No, I think that [any rural/urban challenges related to gender role expectations have] kind of all gone away. …Because, like I said, the women that are active at the state House and the Senate – they’re strong-willed women. …And I just think we’re blessed, to be real honest with you, that we have as many women active in Republican politics that there are. And I think that’s really a good thing for us. And it’s forcing some men to change their viewpoints a little bit. …This ain’t about good old boy politics anymore. This is about electing the qualified people to do the job we elected them to do and reminding them they work for us and we don’t work for them."

You know, 10, 15 years ago I would have said there were struggles [for women in politics]. …But I think now, I mean, when I look around there are just so many women involved in everything that’s going on in Oklahoma in terms of politics. …I think probably a better way to look at it is that rural Oklahoma [politics] would have been mostly male. That’s changing. [Interview conducted in March 2022.]"

And I think what you see on the partisan divide right now, what [Democrats are] unfortunately up against, is the population shifts from rural to urban. And that’s why we, as Democrats, have lost so abysmally…because we’ve lost all of those rural seats. Luckily, I think, we’re kind of done hemorrhaging mostly and there are opportunities to pick up seats within the urban area. But we’ve been – we’ve fallen victim to a bad map and…population shifts."

Leader-elect Munson and I have talked at length about being very intentional about our recruitment in some of these winnable seats that we are looking specifically for these women of color. And l also think there’s no support infrastructure campaign-wise for these women, right? …We’ve tried to run some campaigns in the northeast side which is majority-Black here in Oklahoma City and we can provide them some support like direct mail and fundraising and some of that institutional support, but I don’t know their community, right? …We’re trying to break into these communities but…validators have to happen…that don’t look like me."

The lobbyist core at the Capitol has a lot of power. …Because of term limits, [power] here sits within political consultants and lobbyists. …It’s become a little bit more women-oriented but it’s still very white and male. And that’s not good either because that’s where a lot of the institutional knowledge sits because of the term limits. And, you know, if I quit doing this work, …you lose one more woman and one woman who’s intentionally hiring women and people of color to do this work."

In the Illinois House specifically the Speaker [Michael Madigan] wanted female candidates. He felt like they were more successful. Maybe he also felt like he could control them a little bit more, I don’t know. But he certainly actively recruited ‘moms on a mission’ I think, to use a catch phrase from one of the campaigns."

I do think [it] still feels to me like the most influential lobbyists…are primarily men who have been around a very, very long time and have managed to build relationships with campaign support, funding, legal assistance, all those things. …[I think] the most influential people are men."