California Democrats garnered big wins all across the state earlier this month in the November General Election, and those victories provided a much-needed silver lining to an otherwise bruising and disappointing election cycle. For example, Sheila Kuehl’s victory in the Los Angeles County Supervisorial race and Speaker of the Assembly Toni Atkins’ re-election win in San Diego’s 78th Assembly District helped to boost not just morale, but also the number of both LGBT and women holding elected office in California, two demographics that continue to be sorely lacking in electoral politics.
Emerge California, an organization dedicated to changing the face of California politics and ensuring more demographic diversity in our elected bodies, including women of color, LGBT and mothers, also boasted big electoral wins. Inspiring and preparing Democratic women across the state to run for and win public office by providing comprehensive training and access to powerful political networks, Emerge California has trained more than 300 women, half of whom have already run for, or been appointed to, office with a nearly 70% overall win rate since its founding 12 years ago. In addition, 50% of Emerge alumnae are women of color with 12% identifying as LGBT.
Twenty-seven Emerge California candidates were on November General Election ballots all across the state, running for everything from school board to city council to mayor to State Assembly to Congress. Of the twenty-seven, more than 54% of them were successful in their races; compare that, for example, to the 36% win rate for Democratic U.S. Senatorial candidates.
Programs like Emerge California are so important because we proactively ask women to run for office. By and large, women do not self-nominate, but rather have to be asked about seven times before they will consider running for public office. Women’s disdain for the political arena is a mix of both the rational and irrational.
Tammy Baldwin
Running for office takes money, moxie and means. Strong viable candidates have to be confident, charismatic and very comfortable asking for large sums of money. The business of politics is definitely not for the faint of heart. Programs like Emerge California are so important because once we ask women to run, we train them, encourage them and provide them with long-term support.
For millennia, women have been socially conditioned to be humble, submissive and deferential. As a result, 52% of the population lacks the confidence, connections and access to power. In turn, women don’t run for public office at the same rates as men do. What we’re left with is a House of Representatives at the federal level where women only make up 18% of the elected officials and a state legislature where they only account for 25%.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, all of the research tells us that if we really want a more fair and just society, one that truly embraces and respects diversity in the form of progressive policy with respect to the environment, reproductive justice, education, gay rights, pay equity or prison reform, the quickest route to that outcome is through electing more progressive Democratic women at all levels of government.
In 2012, Tammy Baldwin became the first female U.S. Senator from the state of Wisconsin. Even more historic, she became the first openly gay woman to ever serve in the Unites States Senate. But long before Tammy Baldwin was a United States Senator, she served on her local city council and county board of supervisors. California’s Sheila Kuehl was first appointed to a commission and then went on to serve in the State Assembly and State Senate before winning the seat for Los Angeles County Supervisor. And the same is true for San Diego’s Toni Atkins. Long before she made history by becoming the first openly gay female Speaker of the Assembly, she served on the San Diego City Council and was also the city’s Mayor.
It’s hard to believe that for all of the blazing social and technological advances our country has made in the past 50 years, electing more women and members of the LGBT community has inched along at such a glacial pace. It’s my opinion that one of the primary reasons we haven’t seen as much progress in our efforts to elect more people from underrepresented communities has been the lack of a more strategic and coordinated effort among likeminded groups and constituencies to recruit, train, mentor and support these individuals to run.
With nearly 60% of our current Congressional and Senatorial members having started their political careers at the local level, if the collective “we” want to ensure that our principles and values as Californians and Americans are reflected in our policies and laws, then we must work together in a more collaborative fashion and invest in building our talent bench of well-trained, well-positioned, well-supported candidates.
Sheila Kuehl
A little known secret that really needs to come out of the proverbial closet is that although California has a reputation for being the liberal beacon and progressive bastion of America, the truth of the matter is that in terms of local politics, comparatively speaking, California is more akin to states like Arizona and Georgia. Today, there are more Republicans elected to local office in California than Democrats. Wait, what? Yep, true story.
The November 4 General Election provided some really important foreshadowing about the future of national politics. Here in California, we need to jumpstart our long game by looking at our (aging) current leadership at the federal and state levels (read Senators Feinstein, Boxer, Governor Brown, etc.). Now is the time to start grooming the next generation and building our bench of local, state and national political leaders. Working together and supporting collaborative coalitions and organizations like Emerge California will ensure that California continues to be a political trailblazer on the national stage.
Phyllis Lyon, another one of California’s political trailblazers, celebrates her 90th birthday this week. The founder of DOB (Daughters of Bilitis), the nation’s first lesbian organization, Phyllis has been shaking up the political world for decades. Today, her work continues to help shape the political and social debate around women’s rights, gay rights and equality.
As we look to 2016 and another possible presidential run by Hillary Rodham Clinton, we need to ask ourselves: “What are we doing to ensure the next generation of Phyllis Lyons, Toni Atkins, Sheila Kuhls, Tammy Baldwins and Hillary Rodham Clintons?” As a fellow Californian, I say, let’s not follow the trend; let’s set the trend. It’s time to show the rest of the country what California is all about. Let’s support efforts to recruit, train and groom the next generation of political leaders at the local, state and federal levels. Let’s work together to EMERGE!
Kimberly Ellis is the Executive Director of Emerge California. You can learn more about Emerge California at their 2015 Program Kickoff Reception on Saturday, December 6, from 6:30-8:30pm in San Francisco. More details can be found at www.emergeca.org
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