Weekend Reading on Women’s Representation: N.M.’s Deb Haaland Is Running for Governor; Stacey Abrams to Keynote Democracy Solutions Summit

Weekend Reading for Women’s Representation is a compilation of stories about women’s representation. 

This week’s Weekend Reading includes a piece by RepresentWomen staff members on women and the presidency, women and 2026 races for the Senate, Deb Haaland’s run for governor, women and mayoral races, the U.S. women’s soccer team, losses for women in the German elections, deep fake technology and women candidates, and a link to register for RepresentWomen’s virtual Democracy Solutions Summit from 3 to 5 p.m. EST, March 4-6, featuring an incredible lineup of women experts!

Burnout Is Real. The Remedy Is Pro-Democracy Work.

If experienced democracy activists and funders are feeling burned out, imagine how high school students are feeling.

You may find it hard to consider high school voter registration important when federal health agencies are ordered to cease external communications, when nondiscrimination efforts are stopped in their tracks, when security details are being ominously removed from public servants who face threats to their lives, or when Senate-confirmed inspectors general are fired late at night.

In the face of all this, though, high school voter registration remains important—because democracy is important. Because the power to press back against authoritarianism is in our hands. Because genuine progress is possible and individual and collective effort can make a real difference.

Why the ERA Needs Congressional Action—And How We Can Win

Over these past weeks, I’ve read countless emails, sat through heated meetings, and heard the cries for action directed at President Joe Biden urging him to order the archivist to certify and publish the ERA in the Constitution. I understand the yearning for a decisive stroke. But this path, I believe, is a snare, tangled in legal thorns, dangerous and fraught with risk.

After careful study and consultation with leading constitutional experts, I am certain that Congress must pass joint resolutions to recognize the ERA and remove the arbitrary time limit.

His intervention could set off a chain reaction, handing ERA opponents an opportunity to challenge the amendment in court. A judicial gauntlet with Trump-appointed judges risks obliterating decades of progress, forcing us to begin again, clawing our way back through Congress, where a two-thirds vote is needed in the House and Senate, and three-fourths of state legislatures must ratify any new amendment.

The Crusade to Elect Three Democrats to the Texas Supreme Court

“The Texas Supreme Court took our freedoms. And what we need to do about it in November is vote out Jimmy Blacklock, John Devine and Jane Bland,” said Gina Ortiz Jones, Texas woman and founder of the Find Out PAC.

Jones said she’s confident that “people are very motivated to hold somebody accountable” for their loss of reproductive rights in Texas, and that flipping three seats on the state Supreme Court may not be as difficult as it seems.

“When people say, ‘Oh, that’s really tough’—well how do we know?” she said. “We’ve never tried.”

‘For the First Time in a Long Time, They Have Hope in Alabama’: What Rep. Marilyn Lands’ Win Means to Voters

When Rep. Marilyn Lands won her race for the 10th District seat in Alabama in March with 63 percent of the vote, she did not expect to beat her Republican opponent by such a large margin.

After having an abortion herself, Lands made reproductive freedom the heart of her winning campaign this year. She has found that sharing her story has had a profound impact on her relationship with voters.