State Voices

I would say the two pivotal [reasons that I left the legislature] were our youngest daughter was getting ready to go to college and our promise was to pay for their college so they could come out debt free. And financially in our state we only get paid $8,000 every two years. And so I had taken all my savings from my corporate [job] that I had accumulated in the almost 20 years at MGM and that’s what I lived off of so I could be a full-time legislator. But with no pay, right, so I used all my savings to be able to do that. And then obviously that has an end point, it wasn’t endless. And when our daughter made the decision that…she wanted to go to college then we had to relook at our finances and it just wasn’t penciling out."

The hardest thing to overcome has been getting good women to run. …The risks feel so high, particularly for mothers. Because it is no joke, it is a grueling pace and it requires a lot of time away from your family. And some women have very helpful, intuitive partners, and some women, they feel like things are going to fall apart if they are not around. True or untrue, that’s for them to kind of flush out."

Women have to write checks. …When I put together donor call sheets for my clients, there [are] three women, maybe four, in my top 150 donors. And if you want to grow influence, all money is is access. It’s access and influence. It is not quid pro quo. It’s not any of that. It’s to open a door. And women are not giving. …Women have got to give, and that’s how they are going to start to get into these circles and start to break through. …If you want to affect political change and gain influence, it’s writing checks."

I would say just seeing Black women in leadership roles is something that just did not exist when I got into politics. I’m currently number two in the House. I’m speaker pro tem. …The majority leader of the Senate is Kimberly Lightford, an African American woman from Maywood, Illinois. We have an African American lieutenant governor in Juliana Stratton. …So what I would say is that…the added representation matters. A lot of this is really about, do you see people who look like you in positions and roles of authority? And there was a season where that certainly was not the case. That is no longer the case. You see African American women in leadership roles. …I’ve been told by all these women who I did not know before they ran for office…that they looked at how I did it. [Interview conducted in March 2022.]"

[Leadership’s strategy to recruit women] was all about winning. …It was definitely about delivering and [women] are delivering a win."

You are three [people all of the time]. You’re the person that people outside the building think you are. You are the person that people inside the building demand that you be. And then [you are] yourself. And all of those things can get really twisted up. …You’re just like, ‘Oh my God, which one of these people am I today, or in this meeting, or in this environment?’ That’s the part I think is really exhausting."

I know that Democratic leaders especially hate to hear us say things like this, but I can’t do anything other than empower other people to see how little I can do [as a Democrat serving with a Republican supermajority]. That’s kind of the position that you’re in. [Interview conducted in February 2022 before Bell left the legislature.]"

So many times what I’ve seen is, well this person was an advocate and a champion and their community loved them and they did so many great things as a community organizer or whatnot. And they get to the Capitol and they’re just D.O.A. because none of that stuff is going to work inside the building. And then those people who were getting at least part of what they needed from outside the building don’t have that voice there anymore. They have somebody who’s very stifled and upset and frustrated inside the building and I don’t know how much good that really does."

At least in Democratic politics, Harry Reid has had a hold on the state for quite some time and will likely do so even through his death."

I have never taken a salary from She Can Win, I’ve never gotten paid. …I think in year three of me just doing it [myself], more people took notice, more philanthropies took notice. …I would say 2016, obviously the pink wave I guess they still call it, was good for us because we had already established a track record in the place and we were a trusted voice. So I do think that the influx of resources came then. The problem with the influx of resources is when something else then becomes hot and sexy. Like now, right now it’s defending voting rights, right? You kind of got to pivot to keep up with the market. And I wasn’t interested in pivoting. I think that there are really great established organizations right now that are doing voting rights and voting access and voter registration that we don’t necessarily tackle. That’s not our space. So it’s the trends of politics that affect the resources. But oh my goodness, if I could I would have 100% hired a staff. We never made enough in operating to really hire staff because I was always nervous about taking in a large influx of money but then not being able to sustain it. …I’ve always been very careful and cautious about sustainability of a program and funders like to fund you in one shot, not necessarily multi-year grants for an organization like ours. [Interview conducted in February 2022.]"

I think redistricting had a lot to do with [the influx of women running for office and winning] because when you redraw the lines over the last two times – not this last time but the two times before then – and you have those significant types of changes in districts and you have more Democratic seats available and women tend to fit into those seats a little bit better. I think that’s huge."

In a way…the most hard-fought races in the city of Chicago are aldermanic races. And because it’s harder for women to raise money and because women are less likely to be in professions where they have rich friends, it’s harder for women to have the financial foundation that they need to run for these offices. It’s still true that for any of us in public life [that] most of our financial supporters are men. And particularly for those local offices, it makes it harder for women [candidates]."