The women's vote: a powerful force

...terms could rewrite the political history books for women. Five states, Georgia, Idaho, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, and Tennessee, could elect their first female governors nationally. Voters could make history by electing the first Black woman and first Native American woman. To lead a state, to expand on the races and the barriers that could finally come down. We welcome Debbie Walsh, director for the Center for American Women in Politics. Thank you so much for joining us. Thanks for having me. With people so frustrated with politics and the economy, do you see women voters in particular looking forward to choosing women candidates, maybe even over party preference? You know, women as voters have always voted around issues, not around gender. We have seen historically women are more likely to support the Democratic candidate than men are, less likely to support the Republican candidate than men are. And that varies among women based on race and ethnicity. Education, but it really comes down to the issues and it often is around exactly the issues that most voters are voting on, which is the economy and a sense that that the Democratic Party might give women who are more likely to rely on the social safety net can't they They support candidates that support that social safety net, which is the Democratic Party. Yeah, that's interesting. The Center for American Women in Politics has an election results tracker on the website, on the site there. Are you seeing any trends yet? Because we do know millions of people have already cast their votes. Well, we don't know yet what those votes are, but we will be watching on election night and the days following because it takes a while, especially in states like California, to get all the votes counted. But you can come to our site, which is cop.rutgers.edu, to really follow the milestones that we might be seeing, record numbers, new women elected, and to really see the results and to have them put into a context. So many breakthroughs, as you said, milestones. I mean, we have women's sports breaking records in support. For me, it's about time. For you, what do you think? Why now? What do you see? Well, you know, this is a story of, over time, slow and steady progress. You know, we have these spurts of years like... It's like 2018 when we saw a record number of new women elected to Congress, but usually it is a slow steady progress and this is part of an ongoing story of women's political participation. We are excited to see some potential new breakthroughs, possibly the first black woman ever elected to serve as governor, very likely the first native women ever elected governor. Native Native women for the first time elected to the United States. And seeing also parity and majorities of women serving in state legislatures, including the state of California, which already has a majority women in the Senate and could well achieve that in the legislature overall and in the assembly. Do you see some of the prejudices breaking down at this point? Because I think even into the 80s and 90s, there were a lot of older people who thought, well, women can't be in charge of a state or in the Senate. And now there's so many women who are running companies and they're more involved. Do you think that the confidence in women is now seen across the country? I think it's better than it was before. I don't think the problem is completely solved. I still think women are often held to different standards and higher standards than their male counterparts. We do know that women have to prove their qualifications as candidates in ways that are different than those of the men who are running. There's kind of an assumption of qualification for men. Women still have to prove that. So there are still the challenges that are I do think that it is better than it was back in the 60s and the 70s for women running for office. And that's reflected in our numbers. Speaking of the numbers, do you think this is going to help with voter turnout with so many women on the ballots across the country? I think that voters, particularly Democratic voters, are very energized this year. And that could prove really a positive for the women who are running. We know that there are more Democratic women running than Republican women. We know that if it's a good Democratic year, that it will be a good year for women's representation across the country, both as state legislators, but also at the federal level and at the gubernatorial level. All right. Debbie Wallace, director for the Center for American Women and Politics. Thank you so much for joining us. It will be interesting to look at your site and see how those trends shape out after the election. Thank you again for joining us. Thanks for having me.