State Voices

Quotations in this section are drawn from interviews with political leaders in five states (Illinois, Georgia, Nevada, Oklahoma, and Pennsylvania) that were conducted between November 2021 and June 2023 to investigate the state of and changes in women’s political power within state political ecosystems.

What do the Labels Mean?

Search filters provided on this page reflect characteristics of each interview subject, as well as the report chapter(s) and findings that each quotation best supports.

  • State: This reflects the state in which the interview subject quoted served in a political leadership role and on which they offered insights into state-level political dynamics for this project.
  • Subject Type: This reflects the political role that the interview subject quoted held at the time of their interview. The attributions included with each quotation reflect necessary updates to subject titles but are not used for categorization in this field. Interview subjects who concurrently hold/held multiple political roles are included in each appropriate category. “Activists” include those primarily engaged in advocacy and/or activism. “Party Leaders” include party organization leaders, not officeholders.
  • Gender: This reflects the gender of the interview subject quoted.
  • Race: This reflects the race/ethnicity of the interview subject quoted, relying on CAWP’s categories for racial/ethnic identification. Interview subjects who identify as more than one race and ethnicity are included in each group with which they identify.
  • Party: This reflects the partisan identification of the interview subject quoted. For individuals not formally aligned with a political party, we requested their preferred partisan identification for this project. Most interview subjects whose professional work spans political parties identify as nonpartisan for the purposes of this project.
  • Report Chapter: This reflects the report chapter(s) and findings that each quotation best supports. Each quotation may be categorized as especially illustrative of one or more chapters.
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We organized a group called ‘W Five,’ which is working women who wine on Wednesdays. …It is getting female lobbyists together and just sharing ideas. …Men work together all the time. They’ve always scratched each other’s backs. They’ve always helped each other get clients, and women haven’t done that because..." Read More

We organized a group called ‘W Five,’ which is working women who wine on Wednesdays. …It is getting female lobbyists together and just sharing ideas. …Men work together all the time. They’ve always scratched each other’s backs. They’ve always helped each other get clients, and women haven’t done that because they’ve been so busy climbing and trying to make it on their own that they haven’t been able to lend a hand and support other women. It used to be, with some of the women, ‘there’s only enough room at the top for one of us so I don’t want to bring too many women in because then I’m not as important as I was.’ And those days are certainly gone. That is part of the past. But we have to support each other and network a lot so that when there are positions that are opening and available, we’re sharing those with our friends who we think can do the job. And we’re certainly doing that in the lobbying field. There is a big group up in northern Nevada that gets together a lot and there’s one down in the south too, and we’re helping each other find very good contacts and contracts. And I think that legislators can do that too."

Helen Foley (d-nv)

Lobbyist and Former State Senator

Helen Foley (d-nv)

Lobbyist and Former State Senator
The women that are being hired [as lobbyists] are doing the vast majority of the work. There are still lobbyists who sit in their ivory towers and barely come over to the [Capitol] building, while all the women that work for them are hustling every day in the hearings, and..." Read More

The women that are being hired [as lobbyists] are doing the vast majority of the work. There are still lobbyists who sit in their ivory towers and barely come over to the [Capitol] building, while all the women that work for them are hustling every day in the hearings, and not just as notetakers any longer, but as major negotiators. And they represent gaming, insurance companies – they represent the Chamber of Commerce. They are there and they are influential, very influential. So it has changed dramatically. Women are no longer marginalized. They are the power that is making the whole system work."

Helen Foley (d-nv)

Lobbyist and Former State Senator

Helen Foley (d-nv)

Lobbyist and Former State Senator
I think the demographics have to change because right now, we have a lot of females representing urban Oklahoma, which is easier. If you are female, it’s easier if you live closer [to the Capitol] if you still have a family at home. And that’s certainly one thing that I..." Read More

I think the demographics have to change because right now, we have a lot of females representing urban Oklahoma, which is easier. If you are female, it’s easier if you live closer [to the Capitol] if you still have a family at home. And that’s certainly one thing that I have seen through the years. I have done a lot of candidate recruitment. It is always a drawback for people who do not live close to Oklahoma City if they have children at home. It is really hard to convince them that it’s worth the sacrifice that they would make for their family. … I think that’s one of the things that really hurts involvement. Men are much less hesitant to be gone four days a week than women. [Interview conducted in March 2022.]"

Sharon Caldwell (r-ok)

Republican Political Consultant

Sharon Caldwell (r-ok)

Republican Political Consultant
This is, I think, one of the problems with women running for office – they tend to not have the fundraising base that a man will have and it is a real problem. We noticed that all the time. There are not the same number of female donors. I would..." Read More

This is, I think, one of the problems with women running for office – they tend to not have the fundraising base that a man will have and it is a real problem. We noticed that all the time. There are not the same number of female donors. I would put down the 100 top donors in our state [and] very few of them are going to be female. Even if you see their names pop up, it’s very often their husband giving and convincing them to give. And so women tend to have a really hard time with the fundraising base. You see that all over the board in politics. We look at who’s going to chair a campaign [and] boy, it’s tough. I can always come up with 20 men, [but] coming up with a really credible strong female is tough."

Sharon Caldwell (r-ok)

Republican Political Consultant

Sharon Caldwell (r-ok)

Republican Political Consultant
We have a lot of Republican women’s groups across the state [of Oklahoma] that [have] traditionally been pretty powerful but usually they are in a supportive role, not necessarily promoting women. …But our Republican federation [for women] here is very, very strong. There’s a women’s group in every area. But..." Read More

We have a lot of Republican women’s groups across the state [of Oklahoma] that [have] traditionally been pretty powerful but usually they are in a supportive role, not necessarily promoting women. …But our Republican federation [for women] here is very, very strong. There’s a women’s group in every area. But they’ve never been focused much on electing women."

Sharon Caldwell (r-ok)

Republican Political Consultant

Sharon Caldwell (r-ok)

Republican Political Consultant
There are a lot of female lobbyists. …I think [term limits have] been a really bad thing for democracy but [they have] really given rise to much more powerful lobbyists. …I don’t know what the ratio is but a lot of the really top lobbyists out there are females and..." Read More

There are a lot of female lobbyists. …I think [term limits have] been a really bad thing for democracy but [they have] really given rise to much more powerful lobbyists. …I don’t know what the ratio is but a lot of the really top lobbyists out there are females and so I think that sometimes it feels like maybe [women] don’t have as big a voice because they are not as large of an elected share but I think it’s a much bigger voice than it would appear."

Sharon Caldwell (r-ok)

Republican Political Consultant

Sharon Caldwell (r-ok)

Republican Political Consultant

[Term limits] changed the dynamic because women are now thrown out after 12 years. Minorities are now thrown out after 12 years. But there’s usually [a] white guy in the wings someplace. And so we really have to look at that piece."

[Term limits] changed the dynamic because women are now thrown out after 12 years. Minorities are now thrown out after 12 years. But there’s usually [a] white guy in the wings someplace. And so we really have to look at that piece."

Chris Giunchigliani (d-nv)

Former Clark County Commissioner and Former State Assemblywoman

Chris Giunchigliani (d-nv)

Former Clark County Commissioner and Former State Assemblywoman
I think there’s a lot of this back-alley fighting that our culture and environment has set up [in politics] that women just digest it differently. I don’t think you can credit it to a certain type of language used at the pulpit or to systems being dysfunctional. …I see women..." Read More

I think there’s a lot of this back-alley fighting that our culture and environment has set up [in politics] that women just digest it differently. I don’t think you can credit it to a certain type of language used at the pulpit or to systems being dysfunctional. …I see women get approached and threatened and they are like, ‘Whoa, whoa, whoa, I got a lot of things to care for here.’ And these same threats are [made] to men. And it’s just – it’s all processed differently. So I don’t know, that’s the toxicity. I call it back-alley politics, back-alley dealing. …It’s just I think [that] a woman’s got higher expectations and [less] willingness to be in a system that acts that way."

Donelle Harder (r-ok)

President of the PowHER PAC and Republican Political Consultant

Donelle Harder (r-ok)

President of the PowHER PAC and Republican Political Consultant
I think what’s difficult is when you get into organizations that claim to be nonpartisan for women, they really struggle with the natural addiction of weighing in then to women’s issues, which I believe oversimplifies what a woman is, right? In Oklahoma, a woman is free to pursue whatever religion..." Read More

I think what’s difficult is when you get into organizations that claim to be nonpartisan for women, they really struggle with the natural addiction of weighing in then to women’s issues, which I believe oversimplifies what a woman is, right? In Oklahoma, a woman is free to pursue whatever religion she wants. A woman is free to pursue whatever education she wants. I mean, this is where we have evolved as a society. These things are not dictated for us. …And so I think that these groups have served their purpose at some point, but…you are now navigating generations of women who are like, ‘Hold on. …I’ve been raised with a lot more freedom in how I think and the choices I’ve made.’ And so you can’t have these overly simplistic conversations as to what are women-based policies. And so now these groups through universities or nonpartisan groups are finding themselves struggling to attract conservative women."

Donelle Harder (r-ok)

President of the PowHER PAC and Republican Political Consultant

Donelle Harder (r-ok)

President of the PowHER PAC and Republican Political Consultant
The response has been great to PowHER PAC [a PAC for Republican women in Oklahoma politics]. I mean, the only response that I kind of get and it’s probably the conservatives in us, is they will say, ‘Yeah but, Donelle, we should not just support a candidate because they are..." Read More

The response has been great to PowHER PAC [a PAC for Republican women in Oklahoma politics]. I mean, the only response that I kind of get and it’s probably the conservatives in us, is they will say, ‘Yeah but, Donelle, we should not just support a candidate because they are a woman. They should be qualified.’ And I’m like, ‘Okay, I agree. We all agree. But why do you fear that we are just going to default to someone who’s unqualified?’ And I think that speaks a little bit to the climate we’re still in. So I think that’s the only pushback, and I get that from women. I have women say, ‘Well, Donelle, we’re not going to just support a women. We want a qualified woman.’ I’m like, ‘Of course we do because they represent us. Why would we not want a qualified woman?’ So I think it’s, probably from a conservative perspective, they feel that when they look at Democrats, people opposite of their views, they will see these people get pushed in the limelight because they check the box in a demographic versus qualifications, and they fear that process."

Donelle Harder (r-ok)

President of the PowHER PAC and Republican Political Consultant

Donelle Harder (r-ok)

President of the PowHER PAC and Republican Political Consultant
I think the reason you see a few more women running is because they’ve been asked. I mean we have to just do more asking. I do believe the numbers are there. I do believe we will elect more women. I think culturally Oklahoma is inclined to elect more women..." Read More

I think the reason you see a few more women running is because they’ve been asked. I mean we have to just do more asking. I do believe the numbers are there. I do believe we will elect more women. I think culturally Oklahoma is inclined to elect more women because while we might be wildly conservative, we are led by great compassion. And Oklahoma was the second state in the nation to send a woman to Congress. And we have it in our history. We just need more women to run. And I think that it’s – for us it also has been a numbers game as we just saw more women step up and more women were asked."

Donelle Harder (r-ok)

President of the PowHER PAC and Republican Political Consultant

Donelle Harder (r-ok)

President of the PowHER PAC and Republican Political Consultant
With increasing numbers [of women elected officials], there’s just…a sisterhood that’s more accessible because there are greater numbers and we just support each other. But the women who ran for office early on and really blazed a trail, I think that it’s important to have those trailblazers…and to have those..." Read More

With increasing numbers [of women elected officials], there’s just…a sisterhood that’s more accessible because there are greater numbers and we just support each other. But the women who ran for office early on and really blazed a trail, I think that it’s important to have those trailblazers…and to have those examples and to have people in those positions who mentor others and support people who are coming up behind them is really important."

Theresa Mah (d-il)

State Representative

Theresa Mah (d-il)

State Representative