State Voices

The reason we’re so red is because we’re in the Bible Belt. …For instance, there’s a lovely little gentleman that has supported me in all my races, I just love him. ….I’ll never forget he said, ‘Maybe someday you could be lieutenant governor…and I said, ‘Well, what about governor?’ And he said, ‘Well, that’s a man’s job.’ And for him I couldn’t even find that to be mean, or he didn’t mean it that way. That was just his generation. …He didn’t mean that in any way as a demeaning but that’s what we face when you have such a high percentage of fundamentalism."

We have three or four serious consultants that get every Republican elected and you have to use one of them. …This is not a state where you can run for an office like that and win without one of them. And the Democrat Party I’m sure has the same."

I think [the increase in women’s political representation] has been strategic and by design to some extent. [Among] people who are looking at the polling and seeing who’s coming out to vote and what kind of candidates and stories do we need to win, I think there’s been some deliberate, intentional work done there to try to find women and diverse candidates to run in certain races."

I’m just still very skeptical because I look around a lot of these campaigns and I still see it filled with a lot of white men — a lot of white men’s money, a lot of white men who are consultants and candidates. And like I said, I don’t think it really changes…just organically with generations. [It does not change until] there’s a real commitment on the part of campaigns…and those who help find and recruit people to say, ‘We’re going to commit to trying to elect X number of women, period.’ …You have to be deliberate and that infrastructure needs to be built."

If the polling was telling [Democratic leadership] just elect a bunch of men, they’d do that, right? So it’s not like oh they’re dedicated to electing more women. It’s like they are building a roadmap to win. And that roadmap, over the last few years, has been you got to try to elect more women."

It can be very stressful having to explain our lived experience to those that haven’t walked in our shoes or, in some counties in PA, might have less than 1% of a Black female population. …Sometimes it’s difficult to have to navigate those issues. But I mean, again, you are just reminded that with this seat of power that you’re in, you have a big responsibility to deliver for the communities that you represent."

When you have issues like Roe v. Wade being decided at the forefront of political discourse right now, and this being a direct attack on women’s bodies, I think it’s those types of issues that are galvanizing women to run. …I always call [Donald Trump] a gift and a curse — [a] curse for obvious reasons [and] a gift because it really woke everyone up to what is at stake and what freedoms we are risking to be lost. And, you know, when women started seeing a lot of decisions that are made in the political space that have a direct impact on their quality of life, I think [that] has woken some women up to where, ‘No, I have to be part of a conversation.’ …So many of our bread and butter issues were being dismantled and I think that has contributed to more women getting into politics and [at] all levels, not just as elected officials but as policymakers, as communication specialists, as fundraisers."

I think one [of the barriers to women’s political representation is] access to resources. Being able to fund campaigns, especially the way they’re being financed today when you have independent expenditures flying in, and it’s just getting more expensive to run for elected office. And again, when we’re talking about women being paid less, that means women have access to less resources, access to less assets. And it just kind of immediately creates a barrier for our ability to raise our own capital to finance campaigns."

I think with the increase of the electorates being women coming out to vote, determining elections, I think that has forced the Democratic Party to give more women a seat at that table. But just because you have a seat at the table does not mean you are in the room or in the smoke-filled room or in the same backroom where the deals are cut."

I think the…newer women coming into the space, or just a new and younger wave of the electorate that are showing up to the polls and voting and getting involved, they’re forcing the Democratic Party to have these conversations [about who is electable]. And, again, it’s showing up in the races that we’re seeing now. [Interview conducted in May 2022.]"

So I think on a positive side, we have access to the table now. But again…we’re not being allowed to be in a position where we’re making the decisions for election cycles or the policy agenda and stuff like that. And we’re still being second guessed. [Interview conducted in May 2022.]"

I don’t see barriers, I really don’t. We kind of create our own sometimes. There are some restrictions that we put on ourselves, or we don’t want to get involved in politics."