What I learned from my career as a woman in local government: Don’t sweat the small stuff

Hillary always keeps her eye on the prize

I was the first woman ever to serve on the James City County Board of Supervisors — the oldest county board in the Commonwealth of Virginia. So while I may not be Hillary Clinton, I feel like I know a thing or two about breaking glass ceilings.

When I became the chair, there was this huge hysteria that broke out over what they could call me — Chairman? Chairwoman? Chairperson? As a woman, I learned early on in my tenure that you just can’t sweat the small stuff. I didn’t care what they called me as long as we got the job done on behalf of our constituents. We needed to get the sewers cleaned and the schools funded — I didn’t have time for silly stuff.

Hillary Clinton has dealt with nonsense like that her entire life. But she knows that what matters is whether you get the job done or not. That’s why she’s been so successful in her career as a public servant. She doesn’t get caught up in the drama or the politics of the day. She rolls up her sleeves and focuses on what needs to get done.

When I served in local government, I worked with people I didn’t agree with all the time. Sometimes we would disagree about health care or on the role of government, but that didn’t mean we couldn’t work together on power line projects to save money for our city. We weren’t enemies or adversaries, we just found areas of agreement and focused on those.

That’s why I’ve been so impressed with Hillary Clinton. Republicans have been saying awful things about her for thirty years, but she keeps trying to find ways to work with them. And she’ll be more than willing to work with them when she’s president. She cares about getting the job done . That’s what I want in a president — and that’s why I’m spending the final weeks of the campaign volunteering to make sure Virginia goes for Hillary on November 8.

Join Judy and the thousands of Virginians who are working hard to elect Hillary Clinton by signing up to volunteer today!