State Voices

It takes more effort to get a woman to run for office because we’re overwhelmed and worried about finances. I mean, it was the first thing I brought up. I was like, ‘I can’t put a dime to my campaign, so how are we doing to do this?’"

My opponent had the entire political establishment supporting him. …They thought that [support] was more powerful and influential than [my] 22 years of community organizing. I don’t know why they thought that or that, ‘Oh, Pittsburgh is too racist, sexist and homophobic to elect La’Tasha.’ …But you know what voters want? They want real people. They want real leaders. …They want authenticity. So being myself was my greatest asset, being disruptive was my superpower."

I could barely find a campaign manager. …And then when I did, they didn’t have the skillset that I needed for that level of race. There was no diversity in terms of race and gender and background. …Not even just women running, Black women running, we don’t have anybody to work on our campaigns. And I actually was able to raise money. So I wasn’t trying to get people to work for free. I couldn’t find people. …There was nowhere for me to go to find them. …And so that is the other piece that I think we’re missing. [Interview conducted in July 2022 before Mayes was elected to the Pennsylvania House of Representatives in November 2022.]"

I think that there has to be the infrastructure…[in] terms of when women decide to run…that they can pay people to help them to run and they can live when they run. And that’s what I’m experiencing right now. I didn’t think it would impact me but it does. The economics of running is just not discussed and it’s not easy for women to run if you’re head of household, if you have children, even when you may have a partner you both may have to work, so I just think we don’t talk about money enough in politics and…what it really takes to win. …You don’t want to say to people, ‘Don’t run,’ but if we don’t have real conversations about…how money affects our politics then that’s a disservice to women, too. [Interview conducted in July 2022 before Mayes was elected to the Pennsylvania House of Representatives in November 2022.]"

Political influence is not always elected. It’s not always front and center."

I’m a regular middle-class person. I didn’t have the luxury of mortgaging my future. I didn’t have a home that I could put up for collateral to run this race, right? I was working full-time when I launched my campaign. …The only reason I could run is because I didn’t have student loans. That was one thing that was maybe a separator from me [and] my peer groups but I am not wealthy [and] well-connected."

I think I was going to win no matter what, and I don’t think it has to do with the map."

In some ways, as the state becomes more racially diverse, they’re recruiting women from diverse racial backgrounds because they think that…they can mobilize voters."

I did have some blatantly sexist things said to me [as a candidate]. …When I ran for my second term…a male legislator said to me, ‘Well, we all know you’re going to win because all you have to do is wear a short skirt and everyone will vote for you.’ …It was just so demeaning."

I think that the Republican Party right now has a lot of messaging issues and…just an increase in participation of people that don’t share that value for diversity and I don’t agree with that. I’m very much an advocate for equal rights and diversity and…I hope that trend reverses at some point in the future. …I do have people in my ear that would say that we absolutely are reaching out to groups that are more diverse and there has been efforts there, and that there is a welcome, open tent to diverse ethnicities and representation. But that message has, I think, been interrupted by some mixed messages there and has not translated consistently and effectively for us to see the level of support of diverse communities and participation."

I do think that that [it] is more often the school of thought [among Republicans] that we don’t need to focus so much on [gender]. We need to focus more on everyone’s individual unique talents and whoever the best qualified person is for the job. And there is some truth in that. We can go to an extreme of overly focusing on separate categories. However – and maybe it’s because academically I taught gender and communication, I teach multicultural communication, I teach about these concepts – I’m so much more aware of the fact that we do need to acknowledge that things like mentorship and…being invited into the conversation, [to] the table, is important [to women] because historically we haven’t done that. So I’m probably an outlier in that regard that I’ve spent many years studying from an academic perspective these types of issues and I have a different perspective than a lot of my colleagues do. I think many times, not always, but many times [they] are well-meaning in that perspective but they just haven’t necessarily seen it from a different light."

What keeps me [in political office]? I’m a Black woman. There is no easier place to be [than in elective office]. There is no more comfortable place to go, right? Black women in corporate America face discomfort every single day and correspondingly less power to actually do something about it, which is an even more, I would say, depressing position to be in. …You recognize that…if you don’t find a solution, then all of these problems will continue to exist that you live with every single day. …Now the question is, would you rather live through it with no hope of gaining control or power? Or would you rather live through it with the hope that you’re building something that will be able to take it on? You are playing that long game, right? I see this as a relay. I also see this as, simultaneously, we are building capacity every single election cycle. So I’m a space holder. I’m keeping a seat warm as the new generation that is more liberal, more progressive…is coming in."