Women and Politics

This post was submitted by Rebecca Freedholm, WCF Communications Fellow

It was a long night in Minnesota. The Democratic primary results for Governor remained neck-and-neck between MN State House Speaker Margaret Anderson Kelliher and Mark Dayton until early this afternoon.

While Kelliher did hold a significant lead throughout early returns, Dayton ultimately pulled ahead and received 41.30% of the vote compared to Kelliher’s 39.79%.

While Kelliher’s loss is disappointing, one thing is absolutely clear: Kelliher has tenaciously run an incredible campaign. Kelliher came into the race with a huge financial disadvantage—both of her opponents self-funded their campaigns with vast independent wealth. Dayton is an heir to the Target chain fortune, and undoubtedly benefitted from his “high-name recognition and financial advantage.”

Yet despite her disadvantage entering the race, Kelliher inspired a large coalition of supporters who functioned as a major driving force behind her campaign. She also won the support of David Wellstone and both of Minnesota’s Democratic senators—Al Franken and Amy Klobuchar.

Despite being down in the polls, Kelliher continued to build momentum through a vibrant grassroots campaign. During the final debate on Sunday, she was the only candidate to have supporters show up en masse as she gave a supreme performance that inevitably outshined her opponents’.

I salute Kelliher and her performance in this race; she has demonstrated unwavering courage and strength and ultimately proved herself to be an exceptional leader.

I hope that Kelliher will run for higher office again and continue to advance women’s political participation in her state. Not only has Minnesota never elected a female governor, but a woman has never even received a major party nomination for governor in the state.

Women are vastly underrepresented at all levels of public office, and they are most dramatically underrepresented at the gubernatorial level. Currently, only 6 out of 50 states have a female governor.

Kelliher reminds me of another strong-willed female candidate we saw recently: Secretary Jennifer Brunner, who proved to be “one of those tenaciously tough women who didn’t give up” in spite of the challenges placed against her. While not all women face funding disadvantages, it does seem that female candidates often rise to the occasion when facing difficult campaign hurdles.

What do you think? Are women intrinsically better at being grassroots candidates? Do they have the tendency to be more tenacious in their campaigns when facing obstacles?

This post was submitted by Rebecca Freedholm, WCF Communications Fellow

As the primary election for Governor of Minnesota quickly approaches, this once “buzzless” race is finally heating up. Margaret Anderson Kelliher’s vivacious campaign is largely responsible for this recent surge of momentum.

During Sunday’s final DFL gubernatorial primary debate, Kelliher’s supporters swarmed the Fitzgerald Theater in St. Paul and remained fully energized as they waited outside for the entirety of the debate. Inside the theater, Kelliher was evidently motivated by her supporter turnout and spoke passionately and adroitly throughout the debate. Although her opponents did well, Kelliher emerged as the obvious victor.

Sunday’s debate was only one example of the enthusiasm that Kelliher’s campaign has been building. While her opponents have been channeling their campaign money into television advertisements, Kelliher has been focusing on a grassroots initiative. This approach has been widely successful and has continued its impetus through these last days leading to the primary:

“The enthusiasm and momentum behind Kelliher’s campaign is peaking at exactly the right time. All week, thousands of volunteers have been on the phones and knocking on doors. It’s part of an unprecedented statewide grassroots Get Out The Vote effort. In just one week, Kelliher supporters are making more than 295,000 phone calls and knocking on over 30,000 doors.”

There should be no question as to why volunteers have devoted so much of their time and effort to Kelliher’s bid for Governor; Kelliher has been a strong, dedicated leader for Minnesota for over a decade. Ever since she was elected to the Minnesota House of Representatives in 1998, she has been successfully working to improve the lives of Minnesotans. As Minority Leader in 2006, Kelliher directed the campaign operation that led to the largest legislative gains in decades for the DFL House Caucus.

After that impressive accomplishment, Kelliher was elected Speaker of the House by her colleagues. In her role as Speaker she has continued to build a remarkable record of achievements for Minnesota:

“During her tenure as Speaker, Margaret guided the passage of a nation-leading renewable energy standard…Over the course of the past three legislative sessions – all of which ended on time – Margaret oversaw an agenda that provided health care coverage for 40,000 uninsured children, provided for property tax relief for Minnesota families, and fulfilled a commitment to increase school funding. In the face of historic economic challenges, Margaret created a Jobs Task Force, recognizing the need to invest in job creation and training skilled workers for the new economy.”

Kelliher is a proven leader who shows exceptional strength and poise; even the Minneapolis Star Tribune has characterized her as the “calm inside the storm.” She believes that this is the most important gubernatorial election in a generation, and she is confident that she can win with the help of her supporters. For many years, Kelliher has demonstrated her commitment to serving the people of Minnesota, and now the people of Minnesota are confirming their dedication to Kelliher.

“From the beginning, this has been a people-powered campaign. I am proud to have the support of so many DFLers who, like me, believe our best days are yet to come. Together we will win this election and get Minnesota back to work.”

Along with many Minnesotans, WCF supports Margaret Anderson Kelliher in her endeavor to become Governor of Minnesota. We believe that Kelliher is an eminently qualified candidate and an extraordinary leader, and we encourage Minnesotans to continue to prove their support for her in the primary tomorrow, August 10th.

This post was submitted by Sophie Shulman, WCF Communcations Fellow

This November, women in American politics have the opportunity to break yet another glass ceiling. According to the Center for American Women and Politics, eight states have the potential to elect their first female governor ever. 26 states have never had a female governor, and, currently, there are only six women serving as governors in the entire country. These statistics, in conjunction with women’s 17% representation in Congress, paint a dismal picture of women’s participation in the political system.

In many ways, women’s representation at the state level is actually more important than at the federal level. While Senators and Congresswomen tend to make more impressive role models, state legislators and governors often have more impact on women’s day-to-day lives. Indeed, Governor Charlie Crist’s brave decision last month to veto a bill that would require pre-abortion ultrasounds is just one example of governors providing the first line of defense for women’s rights. Here at WCF, we work to elect women up and down the ticket to ensure that state legislatures and governments are also filled with female candidates that are willing to fight for women.

But there’s another reason why we’re working to get more women into governors’ mansions. In fact, over half of the U.S. presidents elected in the 20th century were former governors. The executive and leadership experience that governors gain while serving in the highest state office is invaluable—and is seen as the path to the presidency. If we someday hope to elect a female president, we have to work today to secure female governors.

And it appears that 2011 could be a groundbreaking year for women governors. In addition to the eight states that may elect their first female governors, two of the sitting governors don’t face re-election this cycle, and another ten states have female candidates, many of which look to be likely winners in November. If elected, these women will beat the 2004 and 2006 record of nine sitting female governors.

Here at WCF, we’ve endorsed five of these outstanding women: Libby Mitchell (ME), Margaret Anderson Kelliher (MN), Diane Denish (NM), Deb Markowitz (VT), and sitting Governor Bev Purdue (NC). We’re also supporting Linda Chavez-Thompson and Yvette McGee Brown who are hoping to become Lieutenant Governors, a great stepping-stone to governor and beyond.

While we’re thrilled that so many women are taking a chance and choosing to run for office, it’s a shame that WCF cannot endorse every woman who chooses to run for governor. We’ve selected these candidates because they’ve shown their commitment to promoting women’s rights, through their political, professional, and personal lives.

It’s fantastic to see that progress is being made in state legislatures, governor’s offices and at the federal level. But perhaps we shouldn’t be so eager to celebrate the fact that women have the potential to make up—at most—24% of the nation’s governors in 2011. We’ll continue to do our best to elect our talented women candidates—but we all need to work harder to show how much we want and need more women in government.