2020 Post-Election Event Recap: 5 Things You Should Know As A Candidate, Organizer or Supporter
Thank you to our phenomenal panelists and all of you who tuned in virtually for our Post-Election Analysis event on November 19th. You helped make it a huge success!
Did you miss out this time around? Stay up to date on all of our upcoming events.
It was a jam-packed two hours with insightful information from our eight panelists, but here are five things you should know, whether you are a candidate (or considering running in the future), organizer or a supporter.
- We’ve Got a LOT of History to Rewrite
While we often mention the percentage of women currently serving in the California State Legislature, Assemblymember Eloise Reyes offered a more wide-ranging perspective: in the history of the California State Assembly, women make up just 4 percent of all members who have ever been elected. That’s a LOT of history for us to dig out from under.
We are proud that California will maintain an all-time high of 38 women (32%) in the Legislature following the 2020 election cycle, but Close the Gap remains focused on speeding up the pace of progress to reach gender equality by 2028.
2. The 2021 U.S. Congress Falls Woefully Short on Women of Color, Black Members
On January 3, a record number of women will be sworn in to the U.S. Congress — at least 141, including 51 women of color.
While Vice President-elect Kamala Harris is making history as the first woman, Black and South Asian VP, and will preside over the Senate in that role, her transition later in January highlights some cold hard truth: without Harris, the U.S. Senate will be without a single Black woman member, and it will include only three women of color (Sens. Cortez-Masto-NV, Duckworth-IL, and Sen. Hirono-HI). Sen. Cory Booker will be the only Black Senator.
Kimberly Peeler-Allen of Higher Heights for America discussed how the three Black women entering into Congress (Hon. Cori Bush, Nikema Williams and Marilyn Strickland) illustrate the urgency of creating a political pipeline for women who represent their communities. Which brings us to how we accomplish that:
3. Succession Planning is Critical to Achieving Equality
T’alyce Murray of Supermajority explained how intentional planning with men and women legislators is crucial to encourage their recruitment of women successors who can balance the scales of representation.
A case study in successful succession planning is the California Latino Legislative Caucus, which made a commitment years ago that their outgoing male colleagues would work to endorse a woman to succeed them in their district. As a result of their efforts and investment in the political pipeline especially in the 1990’s and 2000’s, the Latino Caucus is now majority women when looking at the members themselves, and gender-balanced when taking into account all of its statewide officers and affiliated members. Furthermore, and not unrelated, Caucus leadership is female: Assemblymember Lorena Gonzalez and Senator María Elena Durazo.
4. Lessons From 2020 Candidates- Organize and Persist!
The 2020 election cycle was a tough one for a number of reasons, not least because of the high bar 2018’s outcomes set. Our speakers from sister organizations in Georgia (Jina Sanone with Her Term) and Oklahoma (Sara Jane Rose with Sally’s List) discussed the various factors that added up to success on the state level, and concluded that the voters showed they want candidates who share a sense of belonging with them.
Money still matters and oftentimes those who raised the most still won, but for those who were able to run programs centered around an organizing model, especially down ballot, it made a big difference in their voter support.
In general, the difficulty still lies in overcoming more well-funded candidates, so future winners need to plan and execute pre-campaign year-round organizing, and supporters need to invest before and through primary elections, not just in the generals.
Finally, elected representatives sometimes have to run numerous times to win a seat. As our speakers noted, Congresswoman-Elect Cori Bush (MO-1) ran for Congress multiple times (this was her third campaign!) before finally winning her seat and joining the 2021 Class of U.S. Representatives. Assemblymember Eloise Reyes also shared the fact that Close the Gap California Recruiters came to her after she fell just short of winning a congressional campaign.
5. Pipeline Organizations Can Be Even More Effective If We Double Down
Rita Bosworth of Sister District discussed the disappointment that Democrats didn’t flip any State Legislatures this cycle heading into redistricting, commenting, “what do we do next? We don’t give up, that’s for sure. We keep trying.” Real change and infrastructure has to be built in-state. For organizations working on the ground, investing in efforts locally is key, but rather than dumping a large amount of money into one election and hoping that will be enough, the investment must be year-round. Rita lifted up the recent example of Virginia as one of a number of states who have recently achieved “trifecta” status for Democratic control after steady investment over time.
T’alyce Murray shared that Michigan is made hopeful for the community’s voice being formative in redistricting even though their legislature is GOP-controlled, because of the role two newly elected women state supreme court justices are now able to play in their state’s community-based commission.
Tim Molina (of California Donor Table) and T’alyce also discussed the synergy between electing non-traditional, progressive candidates, and issues-based advocacy work that mobilizes the communities who stand to gain the most from change. In California this cycle, many local progressive wins from Los Angeles to San Francisco happened because of deliberate investment in communities of color over time, and brought those voters to the polls. On the heels of flipping red in 2016 in Michigan, Proposition 3 and advocacy around raising the minimum wage in 2018 both brought new voters to the polls, and updated around 200 distinct voting laws in order to facilitate voter access in 2020.
Debbie Walsh of the Center for American Women and Politics (CAWP) explained how the bulk of the work for recruiting women falls to pipeline organizations, as women are less likely to be recruited to run by their parties. Organizations have to start early, cast a wider net and look for candidates who are already involved in their communities. Those are the ones who can win.
Furthermore, we must ask women who have run and lost to stay in the political world as a service to their community and run again. While not all women will win, it is to their community’s detriment if they don’t attempt again. Studies have shown that while women win just as often as men when they run, women who lose their first time out don’t run again as often as men do. That’s got to change! At Close the Gap California, we have worked with multiple Legislative candidates who ran but didn’t win initially, but who now serve in the State Legislature.
Let’s continue to “lift as we climb!”
What was your favorite part of the event? Tell us in the comments section!
Close the Gap California is committed to building on progressive women’s historic momentum by recruiting them statewide and achieving equality in California by 2028. Join us!
About Close the Gap California
Close the Gap California (CTGCA) is a statewide campaign launched in 2013 to close the gender gap in the California Legislature by 2028. By recruiting accomplished, progressive women in targeted districts and preparing them to launch competitive campaigns, CTGCA is changing the face of the Legislature one cycle at a time.
One in every four women in the Legislature is a CTGCA Recruit. Our Recruits are committed to reproductive justice, quality public education, and combatting poverty, and nine of 10 serving today are women of color.
