Weekend Reading on Women’s Representation is a compilation of stories about women’s representation in politics, on boards, in sports and entertainment, in judicial offices and in the private sector in the U.S. and around the world—with a little gardening and goodwill mixed in for refreshment!
Birthdays: Tracy Chevalier, author; Ashlyn Harris, former professional soccer player and activist; Bertha Knight Landes, first woman mayor of a major U.S. city; Marjorie Tallchief, Osage Nation ballerina; Lois Meek Stolz, first president of the National Association of Nursery Education, who helped establish nursery schools; Kamala Harris, former vice president; Sunny Hostin, co-host of The View; Kate Gallego, mayor of Phoenix, Ariz.; Jean Quan, first woman mayor of Oakland, Calif.; Jocelyn Benson, Michigan secretary of state; Rachel O’Malley; Dillon Sebastian; Abigail Scott Duniway, early Western author and Pacific Northwest suffrage leader who helped win women’s suffrage in Oregon in 1912; Meghan McCain, author and former co-host of The View; Martha Rountree, co-creator and first moderator of Meet the Press; Michelle Lujan Grisham, governor of New Mexico; Katie Sebastian, co-founder of Ixoq; Hallie Sebastian; Helen Rosenthal, former New York City Council member; Belva Lockwood, attorney, first woman admitted to practice law before the U.S. Supreme Court (1879) and presidential candidate in 1884 and 1888; Samantha Bee, comedian; Natasha Lamb, managing partner at Arjuna Capital; Marjorie Phillips, artist who embraced the techniques of Van Gogh and Cézanne and introduced modern art to the Phillips Gallery as associate director of her husband’s museum.
In This Edition:
Milestones: Alice Paul arrested and jailed (1917); and first National Women’s Rights Convention takes place in Worcester, Mass. (1850).
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What Iceland Can Teach America About Putting Women in Power
This weekend marks the 51st anniversary of the women’s strike in Iceland, where a remarkable 90 percent of women took the day off to demonstrate “the indispensable work of women for Iceland’s economy and society” and to “protest wage discrepancy and unfair employment practices.”
Within a year, Iceland’s parliament passed a law guaranteeing equal rights for women and men. In 1980, Vigdís Finnbogadóttir was elected president of Iceland, becoming the first democratically elected female head of state in the world, and today the president is Halla Tómasdóttir.
Recent female prime ministers including Katrín Jakobsdóttir from 2017 to 2024 and, today, Kristrún Frostadótti. I recommend Eliza Reid’s latest book The First Lady Next Door, for a fascinating inside look at women’s leadership in Iceland.
Frostadóttir recently was profiled by her alma mater Boston University. She observed that “Remember that a good leader is a good human being, a person that tries to understand where people are coming from. It’s good to be smart, but at the end of the day empathy will get you really far.”
It sure does—and we can see the implications of the lack of it every day in the United States. It relates to Barack Obama’s quote last month in a conversation with the historian Doris Kearns Goodwin: “If you put women in charge of every government for like two years and then just kind of saw, alright, how are things going? I have a strong belief that things would—they wouldn’t be perfect—but they’d be better.”
There’s plenty of data to back this up. In 2021, the Westminster Foundation for Democracy released a comprehensive report on Women Political Leaders: The Impact of Gender on Democracy. Here’s an excerpt from its summary:
“When women take part in politics, the whole of society benefits. That is the main finding of this report, which is produced in partnership with the Global Institute for Women’s Leadership at King’s College London. Women Political Leaders: The Impact of Gender on Democracy is based on an analysis of over 500 pieces of research into the impacts of women leaders in politics and public life. The report shows that when women are able to exercise political leadership, there are gains not just for women and girls but for the whole of society.
- Women policy makers prioritise issues that benefit the most vulnerable in society, such as healthcare, welfare and education. As such, more women leaders seem to make for more equal and caring societies;
- Women may be more likely to focus on these issues because they have greater experience of deprivation, and because they are often responsible for caring for others;
- On average, women work harder than men to represent their constituencies, which is linked to a stronger sense among voters that government is responsive to their needs;
- Increased representation of women in elected office is associated with counteracting corruption and focusing resources on the quality and consistency of public service delivery;
- States where women hold more political power are less likely to go to war and less likely to commit human rights abuses;
- Women bring collaborative and inclusive leadership styles into political environments that are often characterised by division and one-upmanship.
Many nations have addressed the challenge of under-representation of women with gender quotas. American democracy is unusual in many ways—including having the government paying for party primaries, our Senate having equal powers with our House, federal judges serving for life, and most local offices being elected in nonpartisan contests.
We also are an outlier for having no political will to talk about gender quotas—which is concerning given the recent push, by some (men) for party list proportional systems that must be paired with some sort of quota to ensure women are recruited to the party lists.
Compare that reluctance to a seminal 2005 report from the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance on The Implementation of Quotas: European Experiences that addresses how 35 nations in Europe had either mandated or voluntary gender quotas. Even if we have direct quotas, we must have intentionality—and determination.
Horrifying Attack on Australian Woman Member of Parliament
In recent weeks I shared disturbing news and analysis about violence and threats of violence against women leaders, including a brutal rape of Arizona congressional candidate Bernadette Greene-Placentia and the pattern of highly disproportionate threats against women in office.
Now comes a story from Australia on an attack on one of several independent women in its House of Representatives for which I can find no words.
Australian independent MP Helen Haines is in hospital in a critical condition after she was struck by a car outside her electorate office in what Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said appears to have been “a deliberate act”…
Haines was struck by a White Toyota Landcruiser outside her electorate office on Monday. The driver allegedly reversed to run into her a second time, Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke said. “What witnesses have described is the driver doing a U-turn to get into the car park and to ram Helen against a vehicle, then to reverse and do it a second time,” Burke told national broadcaster ABC on Tuesday morning…
Haines was airlifted to a Melbourne hospital where she underwent surgery. She has lost one of her legs, according to local media. National broadcaster the Australian Broadcasting Corporation reports that surgeons are working to save her other leg…
Paying tribute to Haines during a news conference, Albanese described her as “incredibly hard-working”. “She is fiercely intelligent but most importantly she is just a thoroughly decent human being full of integrity and respected right across the Parliament and from everyone who comes into contact with her”, he added. He said the attack will come as an “incredible shock” to her community…
Meanwhile, Australia’s opposition leader Angus Taylor said he was “deeply saddened and distressed” by the attack. “This is a shocking day for our nation,” he said. “No-one should be targeted in this way.” But MPs from a range of political backgrounds have also described feeling deeply concerned about their safety in recent times: wearing disguises in public, locking their office doors, and scanning every crowd for potential threats.
Women Elected Leaders in the Crosshairs
Steven Hill has a sobering commentary on the Democracy SoS Substack. Please read the whole piece, here’s an excerpt:
A study by the Brennan Center found that women holding state and local office in the US were three to four times as likely as men to experience gender-based abuse; and women state legislators were nearly four times as likely as men to experience abuse of a sexual nature. Moreover, women as well as people of color legislators reported experiencing more severe and threatening forms of abuse than their male or white respondents.
In interviews, one female state legislator related her experience of strangers “identifying my address or talking about my daughter or my mom or, you know, making overt rape or death threats. . . . My husband just showed me a thread on Reddit yesterday about people talking about — men — what they would do to me. And we women just sort of have to compartmentalize it.”…
Not surprisingly, women in office, and especially women of color, report having to take extra time and adopt special tactics to stay safe. Women state legislators are nearly twice as likely as men to change their travel routes because of abuse concerns, and more than six times as likely as men to avoid traveling alone. Fifty-five percent of women of color legislators said they avoid traveling alone. And nearly half of women officeholders said they were less willing to run for reelection or higher office because of the shocking levels of threats and abuse.
This is serious, Taliban-like stuff. Another study found that female mayors are more likely than men to experience physical violence, harassment and psychological abuse, and those who suffered physical violence were more likely to have considered ending their political careers. A separate study by the same researchers concluded that women state senators with higher levels of power (party or committee leaders) were more likely than other women to experience psychological abuse and sexualized abuse and violence; Democratic women state senators faced more sexualized abuse and violence than Republican women. Another study found that, among congressional candidates, women of color were most likely to experience sexist, racist and violent abuse online…
The IPU report shows a shocking list of harmful and dangerous behaviors directed at female parliamentarians, stretching out along a malicious continuum of abuse: 66% were subject to humiliating sexual or sexist remarks; 42% had humiliating or sexually charged images of themselves spread through digital media; 44% were subjected to threats of death, rape, beatings or abduction; 33% were the victims of harassment in the form of insistent and uninvited behavior or verbal contact that some of the targets found frightening; 26% were subjected to one or more acts of physical violence, and 22% were subjected to one or more acts of sexual violence.
That’s shocking: over one fifth of female legislators were subjected to sexual violence. How can a woman legislator focus on doing her job when she is immersed in such a hostile work environment? And when she is hearing constant stories from her female colleagues of their own abuse and mistreatment? The fact that they continue in the face of this persistent male bellicosity and posturing shows an astounding amount of courage.
“America’s Elected Officials Are Living in Fear”
The New York Times released companion pieces this week about rising harassment against elected leaders. In “America’s Elected Officials Are Living in Fear,” a “Times investigation has found that violent threats have become a new normal among public officials, reshaped private lives, cost millions in security and pushed people out of office.”
The piece is long, but incredibly important. It includes:
Women are often more aggressively targeted than men, and harder to recruit, said Greta Neubauer, the Democratic minority leader in the Wisconsin State Assembly. Mothers are more apt to avoid the risk to themselves and their families, she said.
If potential recruits don’t bring up fears of violence on their own, Ms. Neubauer does. “
There is an amount of risk that you and your family are going to need to accept if you choose to do this,” she regularly says to potential candidates. “And we want to make sure that you are fully aware of that in advance.”
Along with that investigation, the Times tells the stories of two women state legislators in Arizona, Alma Hernandez and Analise Ortiz.
Here’s an excerpt that includes one recommended policy: allowing candidates to use campaign funds for security.
Alma Hernandez’s home used to feel like her sanctuary. Now it feels like a fortress. In recent years she has installed cameras, alarms and a lock that opens with her fingerprint. She put iron bars on her windows and a blinding floodlight on her front porch. She cut down two trees in her yard after the police told her they could aid an intruder, and her brother moved in to protect her when the death threats intensified.
Ms. Hernandez, an Arizona state representative since 2019, did not know she was signing up for a dangerous job. But these days, serving in public office increasingly means looking over your shoulder.
“Politicians are no longer treated like we’re human,” she said. Ms. Hernandez, a fourth-term Democratic lawmaker who is Mexican American and Jewish, has received threats from the far left and the far right. They have come in response to her outspoken support for Israel, her championing of vaccines and her first campaign, which drew attention from David Duke, a former leader of the Ku Klux Klan…
Last year, Arizona’s secretary of state, Adrian Fontes, a Democrat, allowed candidates for office to use campaign cash to pay for security, citing the dangerous political environment. That decision helped Analise Ortiz, a Democratic state senator. Last year, her online posts alerting residents that immigration agents were near a school attracted a string of sinister threats, including several that said she would be hanged.
“Walk around with security cause I promise you three months,” one person wrote. Another said Ms. Ortiz’s “car and home and family are easy to find.”
Ms. Ortiz made a list of safe places and lived in undisclosed locations for two weeks as the threats rolled in, she said. “It’s remarkable that in the United States of America in 2026, as a state senator, I had to fear for my life,” said Ms. Ortiz, whose district is west of Phoenix.
When she returned home, Ms. Ortiz, one of the statehouse’s leading progressives, installed a camera system and petitioned a court to conceal her address. She also bought a gun and trained to use it. “It’s horrible we have to think that way,” Ms. Ortiz said. “But ultimately, my home and loved ones need to be protected.”
Ms. Ortiz and Ms. Hernandez represent opposing factions of Arizona’s Democratic Party, but they agree that violent rhetoric has reshaped both of their lives. “What she experienced and what I experienced are symptoms of the same problem,” Ms. Ortiz said.
Ohio Gubernatorial Candidate Amy Acton Subject of “Despicable” Ad
If you wonder why women often choose to stay away from politics, look no further than an ad attacking former Ohio Department of Health director Amy Acton, who has overcome a huge financial advantage for her opponent Vivek Ramaswamy to move ahead in recent polls in the election to be Ohio’s next governor. Alternet has more:
On Tuesday, an ad from the Ramaswamy campaign began to circulate online featuring an elderly woman claiming to be Acton’s mother, Donna Arthur, and accusing her daughter of “lying” her entire life, including her past claims about living in a tent at one point during her childhood. Acton and her family swiftly denounced the ad, with Acton’s brother, Philip Stearns, saying in a statement that Ramaswamy was attempting to exploit the sexual abuse his sister allegedly faced from their mother’s husband as a child.
“This desperate, disgusting attack reveals exactly who Vivek Ramaswamy is at his core – a pathetic excuse for a man who is willing to hurt anyone as long as it gets him what he wants,” Stearns said.
Reactions across social media were similarly disgusted, accusing Ramaswamy of going “beyond the pale” for political points, and suggesting that the use of Acton’s mother was not likely to be effective, given the allegations against her. “What Vivek Ramaswamy has done here is despicable beyond words,” Pod Save America host Jon Favreau posted in response to Stearns’ statement.
“This is absolutely disgusting and the act of a desperate campaign,” pollster Natalie Jackson posted to X. “This woman lost custody of her kids because her husband abused Amy. How anyone can look at that and say, ‘let’s put her on air,’ is beyond me. Every consultant and operative who worked on or paid for this should be permanently out of politics.”
“And notable the spot comes when [Vivek’s] image was 37/53 in new Marist poll,” Politico’s Jonathan Martin posted. “Which takes real work when you’ve never even been in office.”
Rep. Ilhan Omar Targeted by DOJ as Election Looms
Steven Hill and the Times stories focus on political threats from private individuals. This week brings the prospect of another, even more disturbing, threat against women leaders: the government itself. Here’s more from detailed coverage in The 19th.
Federal agents on Monday searched the Washington-area home of U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar, a Democrat from Minnesota and member of the “Squad” who has been a frequent critic — and target — of Republican President Donald Trump. The Department of Justice confirmed to news organizations that the search, which was authorized by a judge, was related to an investigation by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
Omar was born in Somalia, and her family fled a civil war there when she was a child. She spent time in a Kenyan refugee camp before immigrating to the United States, where she became a citizen at age 17…
“I’m ok,” Omar wrote on social media after the search. “Make no mistake: this is an attempt to target political enemies and weaponize federal law enforcement. For ten years, Trump has targeted me with baseless lies and smear campaigns. This is just the latest escalation in his campaign of political intimidation.”
“I will not be silenced,” she added.,.
Trump has often directed his ire at women, particularly Black women. The Trump administration investigated New York Attorney General Letitia James after she opened a civil fraud investigation into the president. Fani Willis, the district attorney in Fulton County, Georgia, has also been the subject of an investigation after her probe into potential 2020 election interference on behalf of the president.
Trump’s attempt to fire Federal Reserve Board member Lisa Cook last year was blocked by the Supreme Court. He subsequently created a three-member committee to investigate whether Cook engaged in mortgage fraud. James, Willis and Cook are all Black.
Cities led by Black women, like Los Angeles and the District of Columbia, were among the first targets of Trump’s federal power grab as he moved to militarize law enforcement in liberal-leaning areas…
Omar’s home was searched 22 days before the November 3 midterm elections, when she and her 434 peers in the House will face reelection. Though there are no hard-and-fast rules about the Justice Department taking actions related to investigations as elections approach, the law enforcement agency has historically shied away from making public moves regarding candidates close to elections to avoid appearing to help or hinder their chances.
The 2016 presidential election was thrust into a tailspin in its final days when then-FBI Director James Comey said just 11 days before Election Day that the agency had revived its probe into whether Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton had improperly sent official State Department communications from her personal email account. Comey had said in July that the FBI’s investigation had concluded, finding that Clinton had been “extremely careless” but had not acted with criminal intent.
Trump fired Comey upon taking office. His administration said Comey had violated longstanding principles related to investigating political candidates near election dates.
Women May Make History on Nov. 3, But Results Could Be Contested
The RepresentWomen team has been tracking this November’s elections closely for what they could mean for women’s representation, and for lessons about the impact of different rules, structures and intentional efforts to recruit, train, and support women candidates. I’ve shared in recent weeks invaluable analysis from the Center for American Women and Politics and wanted to share our own toplines of what is looking possible for women in the U.S. Senate and the centrally important office of governor.
The U.S. Senate
For all the national attention on major U.S. Senate races across the country, women’s representation a year from now may be lower than the 27 seats they told today. This November, only three competitive races involve a woman facing off against men — with their results determining whether the number of women drops to 26 or rises to as much as 29.
On the Republican side, Maine’s Susan Collins seeks re-election, while Iowa’s Ashley Hinson is in a tossup. On the Democratic side, Alaska’s Mary Peltola is taking on an incumbent. With two sitting U.S. Senators — Minnesota’s Amyu Klobuchar and Tennessee’s Martha Blackburn — favored to win election for governor, their decisions for appointing their replacements next year will be key for women’s representation.
Governors’ Races
Our team lifts up the importance of the office of governor in our Gender Parity Index, as executive leadership greatly defines public perception of who wields power. With women governors in 14 states, the range of outcomes is rather stunning, as summarized in this Roll Call article.. Women’s representation increasing to at least 16 seats is a responsible projection, but with women making up 19 Democratic nominees alone, a Democratic tide could lead to as many as 20 women governors next year, while a string of close losses could mean as few as nine. Here’s a brief summary of the contests between men and women.
Among Republicans, Alaska is the only competitive race for a Republican woman facing men, with Bernadette Wilson needing to run an effective ranked choice voting campaign to win. Stacy Garrity is in a longshot race against Josh Shapiro in Pennsylvania, while in the four all-women contests, Republicans are favored to win two (in New Hampshire and Tennessee), lose one (in Minnesota) and have a chance in Oregon.
Last year, Democrats began with two women governors elected, and that number could soar in 2026. In addition to those four all-women contests where Democrats likely will win three, Democratic women are facing off against 15 Republican men to lead their states. They are strongly favored to win in two states (Massachusetts and New York); favored in five states (Arizona, Maine, Michigan, New Mexico, and Rhode Island); face a tossup in two states (Georgia and Ohio), are highly competitive in three states (Kansas, Texas, and Vermont); and face more uphill battles in three states (Idaho, Nebraska and Oklahoma).
Addressing Gender-Based Violence in Elections in Ghana
The International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance this spring addressed political violence targeted on women in the African nation of Ghana and actions being taken to address it. Here’s the summary of Protecting Elections in Ghana Addressing Discrimination, Exclusion and Gender-Based Violence in Electoral Processes:
Ghana is widely recognized as a resilient democracy in West Africa, but despite the Strong electoral administration, judicial dispute resolution, an active civil society and political parties committed to democratic principles, Ghana’s electoral processes continue to face significant inclusion challenges. Women remain underrepresented in political decision making, and evidence from recent electoral cycles indicates persistent gender-based discrimination, intimidation, and both offline and online gender-based violence targeting women candidates and political actors.
This case study examines Ghana’s institutional mechanisms and response capacity regarding the risks of exclusion, discrimination and gender-based violence in its electoral processes. International IDEA’s Integrated Framework for Protecting Elections is applied in the analysis, meaning that three perspectives (or ‘lenses’) will be used: risk management, resilience-building and crisis management capabilities. The case study outlines key strengths and areas for improvement.
The authors conclude:
A resilient electoral system must also protect the rights, safety and participation of all stakeholders, especially those historically marginalized. Similarly, recovery should extend beyond restoring political stability to include restorative justice, institutional learning and reforms that address power imbalances and discriminatory social norms and practices.
Overall, Ghana’s electoral system is resilient in maintaining continuity but less so in ensuring inclusivity and safety. Without deliberate efforts to integrate anti-violence and gender-responsive measures into electoral legislation and governance, democracy risks becoming strong and stable in form but weakened in substance. Strengthening resilience therefore requires a shift from managing elections successfully to ensuring that elections are genuinely fair, safe and accessible to all citizens.
Sweden Shows Inequality in Expectations for Members of Parliament
I learned a lot at the recent annual convention of the American Political Science Association, where RepresentWomen presented papers in multiple sessions. Sandra Håkansson has written Persistent gender roles in a gender-balanced context: Swedish MPs’ citizen engagement for Parliamentary Affairs. Here’s a summary that underscores the ongoing need to support women with sensible rules as they serve and lead:
Distinct leadership styles are expected from women legislators, and research suggests that this is driven by women’s newcomer and minority-status in politics. Do women’s styles differ from men’s in gender-balanced contexts? This paper investigates informal norms on a relatively understudied part of legislators’ role: citizen engagement, using 33 interviews with women and men Swedish MPs. The findings suggest that women MPs experience high expectations on their availability to listen to citizens’ personal problems, while men more easily disregard citizens’ demands on their time and engagement. Compared to men, women also prioritize citizens outside their own electoral district more. This enforces hidden inequalities which continue to shape the gendered conditions for leadership in numerically gender balanced institutions.
Swedish Leader Elisabeth Thand Ringvist Seeks to Form Government
Sweden may soon have a new leader if a small party led by Elisabeth Thand Ringvist is able to assemble a majority in the wake of a very close election with several parties elected by proportional representation. Thand Ringvist or Magdalena Andersson of the Social Democrats seem most likely to become prime minister. Here’s an analysis from the Le Monde:
Sweden’s parliament speaker said Monday, October 19, that he had asked Center Party leader Elisabeth Thand Ringqvist to try to form a government with left- and right-wing parties. Sweden’s opposition left-wing bloc won a three-seat majority in September 13 parliament elections over the right-wing bloc headed by outgoing prime minister Ulf Kristersson, but opposition leader Magdalena Andersson of the Social Democrats has failed in several attempts to build a left-wing government.
In a bid to break the deadlock with neither the left nor the right blocs able to build a majority, speaker Andreas Norlen said he had asked Thand Ringqvist to explore the conditions for a “middle option.” “She will report back to me in a week, at the latest on Monday, October 26,” he told reporters.
Thand Ringqvist has since the election floated the idea of a government “in the middle” that would include mainstream parties but exclude the far-left Left Party and far-right Sweden Democrats. “We have said yes to 75% of the chamber. And so there are possibilities to explore,” Thand Ringqvist told AFP last week.
After Norlen’s announcement, she told Swedish media she would try to form a government that included the Center, Social Democrats, Green Party, Liberals and Christian Democrats. “In that middle alternative, the most likely candidate for prime minister is Magdalena Andersson, who heads the biggest party,” Thand Ringqvist told Swedish news agency TT.
Oklahoma Governor Election Offers Stark Contrast on Abortion Rights
As profiled last week, 17 governor’s races feature a female major party nominee facing a man. Oklahoma offers a particularly stark choice, with Her Bold Move endorsing Cyndi Munson by lifting up that her opponent Mike Mazzei “would be our nation’s first sitting governor to openly endorse the criminalization of abortion patients.”
Although Mazzei has spent at least 11 million on his campaign, the Democratic Governors Association recently put $500,000 into the contest after polls showed a surprisingly close contest. Here’s coverage from News Channel 9 on the candidates views about abortion.
The issue of abortion access in Oklahoma has become front-of-mind in this race after the Center for Reproductive Rights filed a lawsuit challenging Oklahoma abortion laws on behalf of two women who were denied abortion care after receiving fatal fetal diagnoses in September.* Oklahoma voters will elect a governor Nov. 3, with Republican Mike Mazzei, Democrat Cyndi Munson and three independent candidates on the ballot.* Munson says she supports a state question to overturn Oklahoma’s abortion ban and protect abortion access in the state Constitution* Mazzei says life begins at conception and that he opposes abortion in all circumstances….Munson said that in 52% of Oklahoma’s counties, women do not have access to an OBGYN or maternity healthcare. Munson said that even though she lives in Oklahoma City and has insurance, it’s difficult for her to make appointments without a long wait. “That’s what this type of legislation, these laws, have done to women,” Munson said. “It’s made it more and more unsafe.”..Mike Mazzei’s campaign website states: “Life begins at conception. Every human being has a right to life, and government has a duty to protect it. Mike opposes abortion in all circumstances. His record proves it, and as Governor, he will lead with that same conviction.”
Attorney General Elections Overview: Lopsided Balance for Democratic Women
The office of attorney general is hugely consequential. Attorney generals are a state’s chief law enforcement officer and can be well-positioned to run for higher office. One of the year’s disturbing realities is how few Republican women have earned attorney general election nominations. This overview from the law firm Orrick underscores that reality.
A few toplines:
* Voters in 30 states will decide attorney general races on November 3. Women make up 11 of 28 Democratic nominees and just three of 30 Republican nominees.
* Democrats have female nominees in eleven attorney general contests: two in tossup races in Georgia (Tanya Miller) and Nevada (Nicole Cannizzaro); seven where they are favored to win in Arizona (incumbent Kris Mayes), Colorado (Jena Griswold), Delaware (incumbent Kathy Jennings), Massachusetts (incumbent Andrea Campbell), New York (incumbent Tish James), Rhode (Island (incumbent Kimberly Ahern) and Vermont (incumbent Charity Clark); and two where they are underdogs in Idaho (Lori Hickman and Nebraska (Jocelyn Brasher). Two states not having AG elections this year have Democratic women serving as gubernatorial appointees: Anne Lopez in Hawaii and Jennifer Davenport in New Jersey.
* Republicans have only three female nominees: one favored to win in Alabama (Katherine Robertson), one in Iowa’s tossup race (incumbent Brenna Bird), and one in a longshot race in New York (Saritha Komatireddy). Four Republican women do serve as attorney generals in states not having elections this year: elected AG’s Liz Murrill (Louisiana) Lynn Fitch (Mississippi) and Catherine Hanaway (Missouri) and gubernatorial appointee Cori Mills (Alaska).
* Putting that all together, we’ll likely see between 14 and 17 women serving as AG next year.
I enjoyed Her Bold Move’s interview with Georgia AG candidate Tanya Miller. Here’s one of her answers:
Women make up the majority of the electorate in Georgia, and when we look at the policies that are hitting Georgians the hardest, some of the most impacted are women. We have one of the most extreme abortion bans in the country that was passed by the Republican legislature, signed into law by our Republican governor, and we have one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the country. Black women are being disproportionately impacted by that statistic, so women are literally dying trying to bring children into this world.
If you look at our infant mortality rate, it is also pretty abysmal for a state of this magnitude – a state with this level of affluence and success — and it is symptomatic of the manner in which women are not prioritized.
Hannah Pingree: The Nation’s Youngest Woman House Speaker May Become Governor of Maine
When only 31 years old, Hannah Pingree was elected to be speaker of the Maine House of Representatives. She’s now poised to be the state’s second-ever woman governor, following incumbent governor Janet Mills who emerged from the state’s first ranked choice voting primary among seven candidates in 2018.
Here’s an excerpt from a profile of her candidacy from WMTV News.
Hannah Pingree was the youngest woman in the country to serve as a state house speaker. Now, the Democrat seeks to become Maine’s second female governor.
Pingree was in second place in the Democratic field at the end of primary night back in June before eventually beating front-runner Nirav Shah in the final round of the ensuing ranked-choice voting tabulation.
“I think ranked choice was a very positive process,” Pingree said. “It ended up being a race where we talked about the issues. There were not a lot of negative attacks. And after the race was over, all four of my primary opponents have supported me. They’ve been helping me in my campaign.”
Pingree is a former legislator. She served as the Speaker of the Maine House and was the director of Policy Innovation and the Future in the Mills administration, an office created by Gov. Janet Mills…. Pingree has been campaigning for more than a year, focusing on the issues.
“Day one I’m ready to roll up my sleeves and work with school districts all across the state of Maine to implement this,” Pingree said talking about implementing the science of reading. “We also know that things like universal pre-K really help kids to be ready to learn when they get to kindergarten. There’s much more we need to do.”
On education, she wants to look at other parts of the country and see what’s working and to implement it here. Another priority of Pingree’s is housing. She wants to get every homeless veteran off the street in Maine and cut red tape so projects can get off the ground faster. She also wants to invest $100 a year in affordable housing.
No Black Woman Has Been Elected Governor of Any State. Keisha Lance Bottoms Could Change That.
Just one day before early voting began in Georgia, Keisha Lance Bottoms, the Democratic nominee for the state’s governor, stood by herself on the debate stage after her opponent Rick Jackson declined to participate in the debate. If elected, Bottoms would become the first Black woman governor in U.S. history.
More from the Georgia Recorder.
Keisha Lance Bottoms, the Democratic nominee for governor, debated against an empty podium Monday night after GOP nominee Rick Jackson declined to participate in the Atlanta Press Club’s debates.
The Loudermilk-Young debate series, organized by Atlanta Press Club in partnership with Georgia Public Broadcasting, is a two-day event featuring statewide candidates on the ballot in the general election. Early voting for the Nov. 3 election starts Tuesday.
Jackson, a wealthy healthcare executive, instead spent the day flying around the state talking to reporters and supporters, with stops planned for Columbus, Macon and Savannah, and ended the day with a rally near Augusta.
Bottoms and Jackson appeared together on the same stage last week for a town hall-style debate that will likely give Georgia voters their only side-by-side look at the candidates competing to be the state’s next top leader.
Bottoms, a former mayor of Atlanta, used the half-hour forum Monday night to promote her platform, such as expanding Medicaid, fully funding pre-K and creating a fund for affordable and workforce housing. And, except for a few instances, she largely veered away from attacking her opponent, rarely gesturing to the empty podium as candidates often have in past debates when their opponents are absent.
During the debate, Bottoms had the opportunity to ask the podium a question she would have asked Jackson had he been there. She took the opportunity to discuss Georgia’s six-week abortion ban, which hasn’t been a big topic on the campaign trail so far. And she pointed to comments Jackson made over the summer, which were reported by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, that a doctor would need to have evidence to prove an abortion was necessary to prevent facing legal consequences under the Georgia law. His campaign has disputed that as a mischaracterization.
“If he were here, I would ask, how do you prove that you have been raped in order to get an abortion?” Bottoms said at the debate. “He’s not here because he’s on his private jet flying around the state rather than having to answer to the people of Georgia about this irresponsible position.”
South Carolina Will See the State’s First All-Women Race For U.S. Senate
Early voting in South Carolina begins on Monday, Oct. 19, where for the first time voters will pick between three women to become the state’s newest Senator and the first woman to hold the position. Late last week, Republican Sen. Darline Graham, Democratic candidate and pediatrician Dr. Annie Andrews, and Libertarian candidate Kasie Whitener took to the debate stage, marking a historic moment for South Carolina.
The New York Times reports:
Dr. Andrews is running against Senator Darline Graham, a political novice facing skeptics within her own party, at a time when the political environment is rapidly deteriorating for Republicans. Democrats are tied or in the lead in Senate races in five reliably Republican states, according to new New York Times/Siena University polls. That puts victories in Kansas, Mississippi and South Carolina within the party’s sight lines, if at their outer reaches.
Dr. Andrews will emerge next month as either a symbol of a massive Democratic comeback, or a cautionary tale of the limits of progressive optimism. Two weeks ago, the Cook Political Report shifted the race from solidly Republican to likely Republican. Only two years ago, Mr. Trump carried South Carolina by more than 17 points.
…
Although Dr. Andrews’s campaign has out-raised and outspent Ms. Graham’s, the main super PAC for Democratic Senate candidates has not invested in the race. And Republicans have only just begun airing attack ads against Dr. Andrews. Some Democrats fear a reprise of 2020, when Jaime Harrison, a former state Democratic Party chair, mounted an energetic campaign against Senator Lindsey Graham, Ms. Graham’s brother who died in July, but finished 10 points behind him.
Dr. Andrews has been traversing the state for 18 months, promising to reverse President Trump’s policies that have caused prices to rise, with a particular emphasis on health costs and children’s health care. She has also softened her language on past positions that could alienate South Carolina’s conservative electorate, including transgender policies.
A fast-talking, denim-loving mother of three, she has pitched herself as an anti-Democratic Party Democrat, a pediatrician with a work ethic who loves her job but is willing to set it aside to help her state. If elected, she has vowed to leave the Senate after two terms.
In 2022, she ran for a House seat against Representative Nancy Mace and lost by more than 10 points.
Christiane Amanpour Announces Departure from CNN
Women’s political leadership is connected closely with the prominence of women in other arenas. Christiane Amanpour’s 43 years at CNN has embodied the value of a woman displaying strength and intellect week after week in what long was a man’s world of foreign correspondents. Her departure unfortunately may relate to the politics of incoming leadership at CNN that already has caused turmoil at CBS — including just this week drawing controversy over edits to a 60 Minutes segment by Lesley Stahl, another long-time women news leader.
Regardless of what motivated her decision, I salute Christiane for her trailblazing role. Here’s more from The New York Times:
The decorated correspondent Christiane Amanpour, a pre-eminent voice on international affairs in television news, said on Monday that she would depart CNN next year, exiting the network she has called home since 1983.Ms. Amanpour, 68, has most recently served as CNN’s chief international anchor, based in London. She rose to prominence for her on-the-ground reports beginning in 1990 from the Persian Gulf war, and she later broadcast from conflict zones around the world, including Bosnia, Rwanda and Afghanistan.
In a statement, she said she had made her decision “after many months of thought and a few sleepless nights.” Her show on CNN International, “Amanpour,” will be scaled back to once a week in January before concluding in June. Her PBS program, “Amanpour & Co.,” will also end…
CNN’s parent company was acquired this month by Skydance, the budding media conglomerate overseen by the tech scion David Ellison. In May, during an appearance in London, Ms. Amanpoursaid she was “concerned” about the coming acquisition, citing what she perceived as editorial changes at CBS News since Mr. Ellison took over that news division in 2025.
“I mean, do I have to list what’s happening there?” she said at the time, describing an “ideological realignment of CBS and the destruction, potentially, of ‘60 Minutes,’” a program to which she once contributed.
Last week I attended a remarkable Folger Theater production of my favorite Shakespeare play: Measure for Measure. The play can be fairly called a comedy, and I laughed aloud several times. But the director’s decision to set the play in a segregated city in the American South underscores its seriousness, as it grapples with inequality, the seduction of power, the nature of justice, and what we are ready to accept as truth.
Renea Brown is mesmerizing in her role as the heroine Isabella. On a path to pursuing her dream to be a nun, she is thrust into the world of powerful men when tapped to seek mercy for her brother, who faces capital punishment when the city’s interim leader Angelo decides to enforce the city’s laws against sex outside of marriage. While powerfully making her case, Isabella submits to “the male gaze” – Angelo requests a second meeting alone with her, and there proposes that she can save her brother only by having sex with him – trading her chastity for her brother’s life. When she threatens to go public with his lechery, he uses lines that resonate over the centuries, from the #MeToo movement to the Cornell 7 case.
“Who will believe thee, Isabel. My unsoiled name, the austereness of my life, my vouch against you, and my place in the state, will so your accusation o’erweigh that you shall stifle in your own report and smell of calumny….. Say what you can, my false o’erweighs your true.”
Shakespeare keeps after this theme of who you can believe when the Duke, who has returned in disguise, finds out about Angelo’s villainy. He sets up a chance for Isabella to make a public witness where he first takes Angelo’s side, knowing that the public would not believe her without further evidence that he then engineers – following which, in a last ironic twist, from his own position of power makes Isabella his wife.
“My false o’erweighs your true.” This is the fundamental reality that we must address to have true equality across sexes – and that we have yet to achieve.
We have so much work to do. I feel fortunate to be doing that work with so many of you.
