Cheers for the Winners. Now Help Us Elect More Women Candidates

electing women
Stacey Abrams, House Minority Leader in the Georgia Legislature, successfully bested her primary opponent, and is headed for the mid-term Gubernatorial elections in November. (Image Credit: Kerri Battles, Creative Commons license 2.0)

These are exciting times we live in, as record numbers of women run for political office all over the country. And, of course, there have already been some fabulous victories in the last few weeks including, but not limited to Stacey Abrams and Jacky Rosen  (from this former temple president to another, brava!) But electing women is a multi-step process of getting more exposure to more women candidates.

The familiar-name candidates are just the tip of the iceberg. There are so many other interesting women running in important races that don’t get as much press. For instance, Deidre DeJear is running for Secretary of State in Iowa and Veronica Escobar running for Congress in Texas. These are amazing women running in tough places for important positions.

We thought it would be fun to give you a chance to get to know these under-the-radar women candidates from now until the election. These won’t be the people you’ll read about on the front pages of the New York Times, but they are really smart and committed and courageous and we think they deserve our attention and support.

You can easily find their formal biographies and positions on issues on their websites. What we want to do is allow you to get to know them personally, more like what it might feel like to meet them at a cocktail party rather than a website. Here’s our idea: we will ask under-the-radar candidates a set of questions that will help us get to know her better. Candidates: please keep your answers to under 240 characters so that we can share these answers widely on Twitter and other social media.

A few questions to get us started:

  • If you could pass one law today, what would it be?
  • What or who helps you keep going through the criticism and attacks inherent in a political campaign?
  • If you could have dinner with one famous woman (dead or alive) who would it be?
  • What’s the first line of your epitaph?
  • Chocolate or wine?
  • What is one of your favorite charities, and why?

But these are just our questions. What do you want to know about these candidates? Please let us know in the comments below. And if there are women you think we should highlight, please let us know that also!

Related:

Funders: Step Up and Help Women Lead America

Thought Leaders Discuss Origins of American Feminism, Parallels to Third Wave

Author: Allison Fine

I am a pioneer in online activism. Am helping to rebuild our democracy. I am Vice Chair of the national board of NARAL: Pro Choice America Foundation.

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