State Voices

I would tell you that [the Republican Party is] less inclusive. They’ve become extraordinarily ‘This is who you must be if you’re a Republican.’ You must aspire to all of these party platform agenda items. …I was not a party operative. I was not placed into office because I was a party animal. …It’s made a difference, I think, on the people who want to enter into politics because you’re criticized from within and you’re criticized from the external perspective. …I think it does affect women disproportionately because women don’t like that constant personal attack, as well the attack upon their families."

I moved up and became a member of the [state legislative] leadership team. And so at a fundraiser where I increased my ask amount, denoting that I now served in leadership, …I had two large industry entities contact my leader and say, ‘I’m not doing this. I can’t go to this [fundraiser] because there’s no way I’m going to pay this amount of money to her.’ And yet every one of my male colleagues in leadership asked the same amount of money and got it. …And there was no difference in position. …And I found that extraordinarily telling and offensive and very difficult. …There were just certain industry organizations that could not get beyond the fact that they were being asked to write the same check amount for a female as a male all things being equally important."

I think Michael Madigan was probably the smartest politician strategist I have ever encountered. I think his strategy was definitive to women. He watched with absolute care and conciseness. He watched patterns and saw politically that women were the new biggest voting bloc and there were very specific issues that women were concerned about and it may not always be exactly the same from year to year but he was following that…aggressively and recognized that to have an edge and to be control and to get his agenda…he recognized that it was absolutely essential for him to have women as part of his political structure, hands down. Now, I don’t think it was because, ‘I love women and I’m going to encourage [them].’ …According to everyone I talked to, he’s a great dad and he was a great father, great husband, but I think it was a strategy. It wasn’t necessarily from any other [motivation] – ‘I think government should be filled with women.’ I don’t think it came from that perspective. I think it was a conscientious decision to maintain power in the House."

But look, I think success sort of begets more success, right? And when we have someone like [Democratic Leader] Joanna McClinton rise to such a level of importance and seniority and so forth, I think it makes people believe more things are not issues, right? And so while I’m assuming that there [is] some part of the electorate that still holds onto this very antiquated and obviously mistaken [belief] that women somehow can’t occupy any position, when you see Joanna out there I think that that helps change things. [Interview conducted in July 2022 before McClinton became Speaker of the Pennsylvania House.]"

I think yeah, there’s certainly been progress [in the legislative environment since the Me Too reckoning in 2017]. Much of it falls into a category I like to call ‘the least we can do.’ You know, this is what we have to do to get out of trouble. I mean it’s not unlike my kids cleaning the kitchen really well when they’re in trouble. Like alright, we’re going to take care of this. But at the end of the day, it’s still deeply a misogynistic industry that we operate in. And things that could make it better also could make people uncomfortable so we don’t do them. The number of times we’ve talked about trying to give the legislative inspector general real powers, for example – it’s not everyone who’s resistant [to] that is an abuser or a harasser. Most of them are just garden-variety politicians who don’t want anybody looking over their shoulder. …What I’d like is somebody who’s going to actually act when one of my colleagues attacks me on the floor. …So yes, [the environment is] better. I’ve spent the better part of 30 years in and out of that Capitol, and I certainly have my share of stories of the various ridiculous ways that men behave. …That level of egregiousness wouldn’t happen anymore, but the more subtle pieces are there just as much as ever. …On the retention side I think that [the culture of sexual harassment] costs us both among staff and lobbyists. You don’t see a lot of women contract lobbyists, for example. That is probably the least safe position to be in – even less safe than staff because at least you have some chain of command [as a staffer], but as a lobbyist you’re supposed to be taking these guys out and drinking with them and then, if you are [a] contract lobbyist, you’re dependent on them liking you to keep your contract. [Interview conducted in Juuly 2022.]"

We have organizers we’ve hired in every part of the state and [are] still hiring. We’re bringing more diversity to the [Illinois Democratic Party]. I mean, my thing is being more present, active, transparent and diverse. Those are the things that I’m working on [as state party chair]. …We’re rebuilding a party and the thing is people from the outside of Illinois really recognize it because I was elected by my colleagues to serve on the Executive Board of the DNC. …But if I don’t win again, it will go back to one person running the party. And if I win, it will be more of me running it but with diverse voices and stakeholders and that kind of thing. [Interview conducted in July 2022 before Kelly ended her tenure as chair of the Illinois Democratic Party.]"

There was an old boys’ network [in Illinois politics]. Now there’s an old girls’ network. There’s a lot of mentoring and supporting that is going on. There are new organizations. …There are just many more resources…[and] voter acceptance."

I definitely find it to be a responsibility of mine to get in front of Asian American youth, but especially girls. I mean it’s really wild because I’ve had young women kind of touch me and cry. And I’m like, ‘God, …if you only knew what I’ve been going through all day.’ But I try to remember when I was their age. All I saw was older, blonde women…you read their bios and it’s like fifth-generation Oklahoman who went to OU and then law school and then worked for a judge and then and it’s like, ‘Okay that’s not my path.’"

We’ve got to get more women who have the ability to give [financially to campaigns] because that’s where [women] also suffer. It’s…not just electeds. We need more women working in campaigns. We need more women donors. We need them to see that their money is or their financial resources are valuable and this is not just a guy’s game, because I definitely talk to more men than women when it comes to fundraising."

There [was] some curiosity about my race, right? I never struggled to get press, for example, and the press that I got wasn’t necessarily about the campaign. …It was like, ‘Who is this interesting candidate and where did she come from?’ …So there is kind of a benefit, if you will, of this new phenomenon of diverse intersectional people seeking elected office that I think is very much of this moment and time. I just happen to be someone that got a lot of those opportunities. …That was part of my experience as a result of being a young Black woman. …There were a lot of Democrats in my community that did not believe that it was possible to flip the seat. And so then when we got this press, they saw it as validation."

Listen, I encountered this electability concern literally every day. For me, it’s not just about being a Black woman, it’s about being a young Black woman in a district that had only elected middle-aged white men. …It was something people just had no concept for, and for a lot of voters in my area, their idea of a leader is never someone who looks like me. And that cuts across party lines, too. That is not a Republican thing. That is just an electorate thing. And so we had to use those differences to my advantage and we had to be excellent all the time, like you cannot mess up, and showing up and engaging people. And it was just an extra hurdle."

So on its face, yes [there is a support infrastructure for women in Illinois politics] because we have Chicago, which is a bright blue city filled with sophisticated Democratic donors that have a considerable collective amount of wealth and political experience to be able to donate to sustain a majority in our state legislature, …a federal delegation majority, and to be able to support candidates flying in from around the country, right? We’re also a very diverse state. And so even the women…on the money side, [there are] different pockets of women donors, groups, and circles [of] political influence and people who wield political power on behalf of their candidates across…the Democratic side. …However, I think that there is significant gatekeeping that a lot of those things don’t turn on until you have either already been elected and you are seeking higher office or you have won your primary and those external validators have sufficiently hyped you enough when then you can get an audience with these people, right? …We on paper have a lot of structures. …And so it’s not to say that it’s not valuable but the things that are supposed to be bridges or ladders or connectors aren’t – they’re just not."