Close the Gap California Board of Directors: Statement on Racial Justice & Inclusion

Close the Gap California believes that true gender parity can only exist when women leaders reflect the communities they are elected to serve and commit their expertise to addressing their communities’ most urgent needs. Our campaign was launched on the conviction that these women’s leadership can transform politics in our state and set the national gold standard for progressive policymaking.

COMMITMENT

As of 2021, California more than doubles the national average for women of color serving in its state house, and stands at an all-time high of 32% women overall.

The opportunity to achieve 50% women lies before us, and it is imperative that our recruiting continues to actively rectify racial and other disparities in California leadership, at the same time as it seeks to end gender imbalance.

Nine of 10 Close the Gap Recruits elected since the launch of our campaign in 2013 are women of color.

As our team begins to recruit progressive women who can run and win in the Motherlode of districts set to come open over the next four election cycles, we formalize our longstanding commitment to address racial disparities as well as others that persist in legislative representation, on our way to reaching 50% women in the State Legislature by 2028:

• We will recruit those who identify as women, or womxn, or womyn, and we commit our work to be responsive to specific disparities and shifting cultural paradigms on the ground. We will recruit in a way that is inclusive of leaders who have been historically excluded, whether because of race, class, ability, sexual orientation or gender identity, immigration status, rural/urban divide, or otherwise.
• We will recruit towards a racially representative gender parity. There is no equal representation for women without women of color in robust numbers.
• We will recruit women who prioritize the struggle for racial justice. Systemic racism and violence targeted at Black, brown and all marginalized communities pose a grave threat to the future our shared values call us to build. There is simply no path to realize CTGCA’s three core progressive values — reproductive justice, quality public education for all, or alleviation of poverty — without racial justice at every step.

FRAMEWORK GUIDELINES

With these affirmations front of mind, CTGCA will redouble our effort to achieve a dynamically inclusive, racially representative gender parity in our state by 2028:

1. Take concrete steps to ensure CTGCA continues increasing diversity and intersectional literacy in our leadership, core recruiting team, and circle of allies
2. Consistently lift up statistics, verbiage and content in our communications that address multiple forms of inequity, not just gender, with regard to our own work and to the larger political landscape
3. Study, review and update each element of our recruiting model, to ensure a broad, explicit equity lens, maximize inclusivity, and position Recruits competitively

Initial avenues to implement Framework in concert with staff and volunteers in 2021:

1. Study, review and update each element of our recruiting model, to ensure a broad, explicit equity lens, maximize inclusivity, and position progressive women from underrepresented communities to win as often and with as little destructive competition between each other as possible

Targeting and researching districts

• Use data on race, gender, and any other available sets to identify which legislative districts statewide have historically been represented by elected officials most out of sync with the demographics of their populations
• As we target districts for recruiting, give increased consideration to those districts that present the strongest opportunities for progressive women from marginalized communities to run and win
• Study factors that have contributed to women from marginalized communities winning or not winning in past districts, with particular attention to specific, ongoing disparities in the state legislative delegation such as those that exist for Black women from Northern California, API Democratic women, and any women on the coast from San Francisco to Monterey
• When we research and profile a target district, include its demographic history and record on racial justice as we assess potential candidacies

Searching for prospective candidates

• Continue to work on a deliberately interracial allyship model, doubling down on our effort to recruit prospective candidates who reflect their districts within our allied circles, and engage multiple communities from across the progressive advocacy spectrum to participate in vetting, educating and preparing those prospective candidates to be competitive
• Continue to recruit diverse, progressive, women-identified prospective candidates who are excellent fits for their districts, with particular focus on those communities who are not represented in the Legislature
• Recruit intentionally for inclusion of not just racially representative prospective candidates, but also for those who come from rural backgrounds, immigrant backgrounds, low-income backgrounds, and who may be differently abled, identify as LGBTQi+ or gender non-conforming
• Continue to consult with outgoing elected officials, especially BIPOC women members in the Legislature, to identify prospects and encourage departing members to identify and endorse possible successors early

Vetting prospective candidates

• Further move away from assessing potential candidates for “viability,” and instead look for “credibility,” in recognition that political vetting around perceived fundraising capacity has historically counted many qualified candidates out of insiders’ consideration, and has in turn produced candidates who too seldom reflect the communities they seek to represent
• Continue to expand on our three core progressive criteria during the recruiting process by vetting, research and questions into a potential recruit’s record, stance and likely fundraising sources around all issues across the progressive spectrum, including racial justice, housing, development, criminal justice, Labor, environmental justice, and more
• Include a baseline understanding of intersectionality as a candidate attribute and commitment we look for and work to cultivate

Conducting explorations

• During explorations with prospective candidates, explicitly address racial and demographic dynamics at play in a district, and work to provide resources to address specific obstacles they present
• Include racial equity and other key social justice areas in key considerations we ask prospective candidates to explore and engage with during an exploration
• Increase strategic collaboration with allies to ensure that progressive womens’ pipelines and candidacies maximize each other, rather than concentrating competition between them

Sharing resources

• Study, analyze and address barriers to marginalized women’s candidacies and actively advocate around addressing them
• As part of CTGCA programming, provide resources (including webinars, network & expert referrals, academic resources) specific to the challenges women from marginalized communities face as candidates

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.