State Voices

Unless you have a lot of money to be able to get known around the state, [major donors are] gonna go with the folks who they know, and I think this is where kind of the old boys’ club comes in."

Most of these organizations tend to operate like sororities and fraternities and if you are not someone that fits the model, if you’re outspoken on certain issues…or you say something that puts a blemish on the party on the organization or the apparatus, they tend to kind of shy away. …So when you asked me the question, ‘Do you feel there is a pathway or a support system [for women in Georgia politics]?’ – yeah there is, if you fit the model."

What I’ve found over time talking to women, especially when they are running for office, we tend to look at the criteria…[and ask] do I have this experience or that experience? Where men, they don’t question it at all. They just run."

I believe political power lies in the voices that people listen to."

After an instance where a gentleman in this world had essentially suggested that if I wanted to move up [in politics] I would sleep with him…I remember telling my mom about it…and she told my dad. I found out later. …The powerlessness still very much exists and I don’t know what winning looks like in that situation, right? And I think my parents – they are definitely concerned that something might happen one day or that I’ll be put in a bad situation. …I share the concern enough, but I also recognize that I’m careful and there [are] reasons why I’m careful. But I shouldn’t have to be, right? I shouldn’t wonder if that meeting with the lobbyist after work is really just a meeting or if they are trying to make a pass. I shouldn’t have to worry whether or not I’m allowed to go to this place or somebody is going to make an inappropriate advance on me."

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."

If we looked at the last 20, 30 years, [a contributor to the increase in women’s political representation] has really been term limits. Term limits allow for old leaders to move out and new leaders to come in. And with that has led to the significant increase and diversity in the legislature."

And some of these groups will actually charge money to go to some of their trainings, right? There’s that barrier, too, especially if you are a new candidate who doesn’t have the funds yet. …Like okay, I’ve got to raise money to apply, or raise money to even go to this panel — do I go? Stuff that’s done during the workday becomes very inaccessible to working-class families, working-class individuals. Or if I have to travel for it, if there’s no opportunity for travel scholarships, I guess I won’t go. Those kinds of decisions, I think, are some of the conversations that people are having."

It does become overwhelming as a Latina legislator. …I want to be good. I want to make a positive impact on my community. And I feel like oftentimes it’s just on my shoulders, like I have to [wear] all these hats. And it’s like with what capacity, right?"

Honestly I don’t know if its ageism or sexism – which ‘ism’ it is sometimes – but the amount of sexual harassment I have received as a female legislator, I think, in this day and age is sad. …Even though I’m a legislator that should have all this power – I think that is the public perception of it – the sexual violence will always make the survivor feel powerless. And I think there’s, ‘You’re damned if you do, you’re damned if you don’t.’ You’re damned if you report it; you’re damned if you don’t report it because there is this system of white male patriarchy in the legislature that permeates regardless of whether or not we’re the most diverse legislature. And the systems and the values created by this patriarchal system, quite honestly, are the systems and values that even women are upholding because it’s women that are talking to me about how I’m dressed. It’s women that are telling me that I don’t look like a legislator. It’s women that are saying I don’t look like I belong, so that comes from this patriarchal system. So we might have the first female majority but the reality is that that patriarchal system outlasts itself."

I never knew how much of a minority I was until I got to Harrisburg. It just becomes very obvious that most people [in the state Capitol] are not people of color and certainly most are not women at all from [when] I was a staff member in the Senate to this point today. [Interview conducted in August 2022 before McClinton became Speaker of the Pennsylvania House.]"

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.]"