State Voices

I have Latinas elected officials reach out to me after they have to make a hard decision and say, ‘I have no other choice. …I feel like I should just leave because I can’t be myself. I can’t vote against issues that I know don’t work for us, but I still have to do it if I want to be an elected official.’ And I don’t think white women have…those issues and I don’t think that other ethnicities have those issues as well."

We have to create the infrastructure for you [to] feel empowered enough to say, ‘I don’t agree with this. And I won’t vote yes on this because this is not what is best for our community.’ …And [know] that there’s a group of people that have your back no matter what. You are going to be able to fundraise money. You are going to be able get endorsements."

It goes back to that infrastructure. Latina electeds do not feel empowered enough to become our advocates. So if they do, they may get kicked out. So you have to save your space. …I see …how our Latinas want to make an impact. They want to be there for our community. But again, …I think there’s a sense also [that] they are limited on what they can do, how vocal they can be if they want to stay in office, if they want to move up in leadership positions. …Whenever they are willing to speak up [on] something that…may create disagreement with others, they have to first…[ask], ‘Would you have my back if they try to primary me? Would you help me?’ And again, it goes back to the validation [of] ‘Who is going to be there for me if I do speak up about this?’"

I’m not sure [a support infrastructure] directed at women [in politics] is that necessary. …We’re to the point in Nevada where I think we’re over that hurdle that women need special extra care. But certainly people running against the entrenched system need extra special care. And so I would rather see [that]."

I think women generally – certainly me and women policymakers and women lobbyists generally – are motivated by trying to solve problems in sort of a collaborative way, much less focused on personal ambition and much more focused on actually solving problems. And so when the system is set up as a competitive, combat-driven system where power accumulation is the goal, …many women find it difficult, and certainly I did, to fit their perspective into that. And then you feel excluded because no one understands you."

The closer that you get to having actual power – I mean real power in the sense of being able to change the process potentially – the more you realize…you’re tired of fighting it. It’s not worth it. You become cynical and go away."

I think probably a decade and a half ago or maybe two decades ago, Speaker Madigan in Illinois…made the decision, or realized through polling and other means, that the best demographic candidate in a lot of cases, particularly in the suburban areas around Chicago but downstate as well in the urban areas, the best candidate would be a woman. And I think he had pretty specific criteria his staff had developed as to who’s the ideal candidate. And so they went out and found a bunch of women and basically elected them. …It is good but it wasn’t because he really wanted women there because that was the candidate who could win. …It wasn’t because he wanted their perspective. It was because they were electable. …It’s much more the white suburban women that the speaker really made a point to go after. [Interview conducted in December 2021.]"

The other part of [increasing women’s political representation] that’s critical is to make sure that women are identifying their successors and that they are helping us fill seats when they are ready to go. …We need to be ready in these seats to make sure that women are succeeding the women that we’ve [lost] because…it has to be sustainable. You have to keep working on it."

At that time [that I took over Emerge Nevada] we know that particularly Black women were voicing their unhappiness with what had happened with overlooking them and not taking them seriously and not putting them in the forefront. And so in Nevada that was very easy for me to focus on because we have many amazing leaders here that were already doing all the work. I had already been working shoulder to shoulder with them and just started into the whole idea of let’s get these voices elected. Let’s get them trained. Let’s get them elected. And so that’s the back story. That’s where we started 2018. We had the largest class we had ever had and it was the most diverse class ever as well."

Well, candidly, I stepped out of politics just because it’s very difficult and I had just given birth to my third baby and she was almost a year old when I stepped out. So I served two terms [from 2004 to 2008] and I just decided not to run again because it was just exhausting for me having three children and I was homeschooling my children, my boys at the time. …It was just very consuming for me. And it was important for my husband and I to expose our children to our tribal language first. And so we kept them at home. They didn’t go to daycare centers or any type of educational places. And so it was just exhausting for me."

Well, as far as I know there has not been a support structure for women [in Oklahoma politics]. If there’s one then I guess I wasn’t invited. There might be and maybe I wasn’t what they were looking for and so I’m just not aware of it."

We still have to overcome the stereotypes that [Black women] are super progressive and not necessarily business-friendly, business-practical. …I think it’s happening, but the business community is a little bit more critical of Black women than normal."