State Voices

When I was knocking [on] the Republican women’s doors, they were asking questions like, ‘So who’s going to raise your kids?’ And that was exhausting because most of these women were 60s, 70s, 80s, and so for those Republican women to look at women like me and – not all of them – but I almost felt like they were being a little bit condescending. So I think there’s the shift in mentality where we have these Republican women who are 60s, 70s, 80s, and their idea of being a good mom is being at home raising your kids, cooking dinner, making sure your husband is fed and his clothes are ironed. And that’s not really…how [those in the Democratic Party] really view women I think. And quite frankly that’s not how the Republican Party as a whole views women either. But it’s just that older mentality."

Today is the Hispanic Cultural Day. I’ve had so many young Hispanic women come up to me and just want to take a picture with me. And I think it’s because they see that women who – I mean, obviously I’m half white and so that makes me look a little different than them – but the fact that I have that cultural background and we share that heritage, I think that it makes them see that women like them can also be successful if they work hard. [Interview conducted in May 2022.]"

So for me, I had male colleagues that were extremely supportive of women running [for political office]. So one of the people that was instrumental in my success after the primary and the runoff was Representative Marcus McIntyre. And he was just always very vocal about the fact that women bring a different perspective to the capitol, they bring a more holistic view than men. And so for me it was very much the fact that I had males who were encouraging people to vote for women."

One of the other barriers that I saw in running [for office], talking about the economic status and all of that, was the financial aspect of running. So…legislators only make $45,000 a year. …With my husband working for the state, I have always been the breadwinner in our family and so that was something that was really scary to me. …I knew that we would be taking a substantial pay cut [from] me quitting my job and going to run for office. …I remember telling my boss, ‘I can’t run for office because I can’t afford to do that.’ …My boss allowed me to keep my job. And so I worked for him nine months out of the year…and…then the other I just kind of pieced together what I [could] do for him during that time [the legislature was in session]. And so the flexibility that he allows and still paying me was able to break that barrier [to officeholding] down but a lot of people can’t do that."

Another barrier that these women [candidates], especially women of color [candidates], are coming up against is a lot of them don’t come from historical wealth, don’t come from generational wealth, [and] have families [that] can’t be contributing all of the time."

I think that our municipal and county positions are huge centers of actual change that happens and policy and implementation, where the boots meet the ground. And I think there’s a lot of potential and capacity for a lot of positive change to occur at those levels."

I think that there’s…definitely [been] a conscious effort put forward [to recruit women candidates] because numbers don’t lie, right? And I think that what happens is, now that we are getting more women in politics and in elected offices, that we are taking that torch and saying, ‘We need to replicate what we’ve done and also be better mentors and mentor the next generation to pass that torch to make sure that we do get more women in office.’"

Party leaders have woken up completely to the idea that we have to run women if we are to be successful."

Women’s activism in Georgia is kicking ass. It’s incredible. Women are out here, especially minority women are out here, killing the game, changing it up, flipping the tables. We’re here [and] we want a seat. …You see with our congresswoman, Nikema Williams, she worked with Planned Parenthood. She was in the legislature. Then she moved from there to the state Senate and now she’s in Congress. And then we have Renitta Shannon. She was an activist because she saw so many injustices. She would join certain groups and do an action with them. So she moved into the state legislature [and] now she’s running for lieutenant governor. So you are seeing that pipeline being built."

I was just talking to another consultant the other day. She and I were talking because we’re like okay, we’re doing all the work…can’t sleep, can’t eat because all of these candidates need us. …We need more firms of color doing mail. We need more firms of color doing phones, more firms of color doing digital. …When it comes to really having influence on campaigns, as far as execution and as far as where the economics [are], you don’t have a lot of minorities in those positions. …Then when it comes to myself and this other young lady I was talking to, a lot of stuff we do, we just do it. Like I have six campaigns right now, two are paying me because I have to help these women and I have to help these candidates. I have two men, I have to help them, you know because there are not enough other people out there to really help them. So it’s kind of like a love offering per se but if I could have time to start doing mail or phones or something else with somebody else, that could give me the revenue that I need to do all this charity work that I’m doing, you know. [Interview conducted in April 2022.]"

If you care about your clients and your clients are people who look like you, but they are consistently getting death threats, they’re consistently being stalked, it’s emotionally taxing on top of the work that you’re [doing]. You’re calling the [Chicago] Tribune and fighting with them about the problematic articles they’re writing, but then you are also dealing with real true threats. And then you’ve got to look at yourself and say, ‘This is real. This is the state our country is in.’ So it’s another level that I don’t know if a white man would deal with that same thing."

I think women truly need allies standing up…and being advocates. Governor Pritzker does a good job of this in lifting people up in different positions. But I think making sure more and more men, especially white men, understand that privilege and have women’s backs the way women have their backs. That’s, I think, where you’re going to see some real change. So that seems to be what’s needed most."