With a record number of women running for office, we’re poised to have another “Year of the Woman” at the polls. (The last one was in 1992, so it’s about time.) When women run, they are just as likely as men to win races — but social conditioning, among other factors, is attributed to the fact that politics remains a boy’s club. One of these key factors is that while being a dad has been viewed as an asset in male candidates, women with children have had to respond to tired, sexist questions about how they’ll manage to give 100 percent to their job and remain involved in their kids’ lives.
But 2018 is shaping up to be different. Women candidates across the country are reclaiming the narrative by playing up their motherhood in campaign videos and on the campaign trail, making the compelling argument that being a mom can actually be a major asset for a politician.
As Nov. 6 rapidly approaches, here are seven moms from the Democratic party who have a fighting chance of being sworn in come January.
Lauren Baer (U.S. House, Florida)
A native of Palm Beach Gardens, Lauren Baer served as a senior policy advisor to former U.S. Secretaries of State Hillary Clinton and John Kerry in the Obama White House. She and her wife, Emily Meyers, share a young daughter.
After winning her primary in September, Baer told The Daily Beast she didn't consider running for office until Trump became president. "What happened in 2016 was that a presidential election went a direction that was completely unexpected — and two weeks before that, I had given birth to a baby girl,” she told the outlet. “I thought my daughter was being born into one world and she ended up being born into a completely different one."
If elected, Baer will be the first mother in a same-sex marriage to enter Congress.
Jahana Hayes (U.S. House, Connecticut)
Jahana Hayes is a high school history teacher who was named National Teacher of the Year in 2016. Before becoming one of the most esteemed educators in the state, Hayes put off her own college education when she got pregnant at age 17 with her daughter, Asia, who is now a social studies teacher in Connecticut. Hayes is now a mom of four — in addition, of course, to the "army of children" (many of whom are current and former students) who enthusiastically volunteer for her.
“This happened with a paid staff of six and an army of children,” Hayes said after her upset victory in the primary. “An army of children! People say young people don’t vote. I say give them a reason.”
If elected, Hayes will be the first Black Democrat Connecticut sends to Congress.
Lucia “Lucy” McBath (U.S. House, Georgia)
After the murder of her 17-year-old son, Jordan Davis, in 2012, Lucy McBath turned heartbreak into activism. She, along with Gwen Carr (mother of Eric Garner), Sybrina Fulton (mother of Trayvon Martin), Maria Hamilton (mother of Dontre Hamilton), Lezley McSpadden (mother of Michael Brown), Cleopatra Pendleton-Cowley (mother of Hadiya Pendleton) and Geneva Reed-Veal (mother of Sandra Bland), formed Mothers of the Movement to raise awareness about how the epidemic of gun violence disproportionately affects Black men, women and children.
McBath, who is fully prepared to take on the NRA, told CNN that the student activists of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School inspired her to run for Congress. "Until I'm able to create real, hard, systemic change, broad change that saves a large number of lives, there's no justice. We've got children dying in the classroom. Where's the justice in that?" she told the outlet. "I'm still a mother. I'm still parenting. That's why I believed this was the time to stand up."
Ilhan Omar (U.S. House, Minnesota)
Ilhan Omar is the first Somali-American Muslim elected to a state legislature — and if she wins on Nov. 6, she (along with Rashida Tlaib) will become the first Muslim women elected to the U.S. House of Representatives.
Omar, who proudly identifies as a Democratic Socialist, advocates for debt-free college, Medicare for all, LGBTQ rights and gun-prevention legislation. She and her husband are the parents of three children between the ages of 5 and 15 — and her oldest daughter, Isra, serves as the narrator of Omar's campaign video. In fact, don't be surprised if Isra or 12-year-old Adnan follow their mom's footsteps into politics someday. When people tell Omar they hope she can be president, Isra and Adnan have an answer: “They say, ‘Mom can’t, she wasn’t born here, but we can!’" she told Vogue earlier this year.
Gretchen Whitmer (Governor, Michigan)
Michigan gubernatorial candidate Gretchen Whitmer, who has two daughters and three stepsons, has described her household as "like the Brady bunch minus one kid."
The Michigan native told WXYZ Detroit that if elected, she will push for stricter gun laws, support the legalization of marijuana (expunging the criminal records of those who have a record) and work diligently to restore clean drinking water to Flint.
Whitmer says she was inspired to run because she vehemently disagreed with many decisions coming out of the capitol over the past several years. "My daughters are both in high school this year, and I'll tell you, I want them to want to stay in Michigan," she told Michigan Radio last year. "I want them to have opportunities in Michigan, and I want that for every kid in this state. And we've got a lot of work to do on all those fronts."
Deb Haaland (U.S. House, New Mexico)
Deb Haaland, the current chair of the New Mexico Democratic Party, is poised to become the first-ever Native American to serve in Congress. Her platform puts environmental issues front and center, and she backs progressive positions including abortion rights, Medicare for all, the abolition of ICE and a federal jobs guarantee.
The single mom to one daughter, Haaland gave birth to Somah just four days after graduating from University of New Mexico with a B.A. in English. On National Coming Out Day, Somah shared her story on her mom's campaign page.
"I am extremely lucky to have a family who accepts me and a mother who embraces me," she wrote. "Although I always knew that my mom would not love me any less for being queer, having that conversation with someone close to me was always somewhat anxiety-inducing… Although I wasn’t living in fear of telling my mom that I was gay, I was grateful that she could both treat me the same and celebrate my differences."
Mikie Sherrill (U.S. House, New Jersey)
Mikie Sherrill's résumé includes Navy pilot, federal prosecutor and mom of four. In November, she'll likely add "U.S. Representative" to her impressive list of accomplishments. Sherrill is running on a platform that prioritizes women's reproductive rights, access to affordable health care, reasonable gun control and a commitment to tackling the opioid crisis.
Sherrill's four young children have been a fixture on the campaign trail, present at many of their mom's events.
"I hear a lot of, ‘You remind me so much of myself.’ I think that’s important," Sherrill told The New York Times. “If I just said, ‘I’m a helicopter pilot and a federal prosecutor’ they might think I’ve served my country, I’m experienced. If I say, ‘And I’m a mom,’ they think I get it. ‘She’s a working mom. That’s tough.'"
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