Midterms: 126 women are on Pennsylvania's ballot and you might be surprised why they're running
CLOSE
Pennsylvania has resumed an important status, pollster and political scientist Terry Madonna says.
Paul Kuehnel, York Daily Record
YORK, Pa. – Pennsylvania is making political history, even before votes are cast on Election Day.
A record number of women are running for state offices and U.S. Congress in what is described as a “pink wave.â€
Some analysts say women were motivated to run because Donald Trump won the White House. Others say it’s because Hillary Clinton lost.
But candidates say those gender-fueled stereotypes ignore the facts.Â
Jess King, a Democrat and nonprofit executive running to unseat Republican Lloyd Smucker in the newly redrawn 11th congressional district, doesn’t even mention being a woman when she explains why she’s running.
The district includes Lancaster County and southeastern York County, a swath of Trump Country that the president won by 26 points. Despite the Republican-voter advantage, King has closed the race to single digits, according to polls.
The 44-year-old leader of ASSETS, an economic development organization in Lancaster, said there is a long list of issues motivating her to be on the ballot. It started with realizing Lancaster’s poverty rate increased 50 percent since 2000. She also wants healthcare for all, debt-free college, small business growth and fair elections.
“I’m not running because I’m a woman. I’m running because I care about issues,†King said.
But the Mennonite mother of two daughters can’t help but notice there’s nobody in the Pennsylvania delegation who looks like the three of them.
That’s a problem, according to Anne Wakabayashi.
As executive director of Emerge Pennsylvania, an organization that trains Democratic women to run for office, it’s been Wakabayashi’s mission since at least 2015 to get more women in government.
Emerge is similar to the Anstine Series that trains Republican women to run for office.
Pennsylvania is one of 11 states with no women serving in Congress. The 18 people elected to represent Pennsylvania in the U.S. House are all men, as are both of the state’s U.S. senators.
“Our government can’t truly represent us without women in office. We can’t expect right, straight, white guys to adequately respond or care about and understand women, people of color and queer people,†Wakabayashi said. “Until we’re representative, we’ll never be represented. We will never be as strong as we can be until there are more perspectives.â€
If Republican Pearl Kim defeats Democrat Mary Scanlon in the 5th Congressional District, which covers Delaware County and other slices of the Philadelphia suburbs, she will be the first woman of color elected to Congress in Pennsylvania history.
But that’s not why she’s running.
The daughter of parents who immigrated from South Korea, and a survivor of cancer and campus sexual assault, said she sees the forgotten and hears the voiceless.
“If someone is hurting, I’m helping,†said the 39-year-old special victims prosecutor.
As a prosecutor, she secured the first human trafficking conviction in Pennsylvania.
Kim stepped down from Attorney General Josh Shapiro’s office, where she focused on campus safety and sexual assault on college campuses, to run for office.
She’s running on several key issues: bipartisan immigration reform, maintaining a strong economy, criminal justice reform and human trafficking.
Of the record 118 Pennsylvania women running for state office and eight women running for U.S. Congress, 91 are Democrats and 35 are Republicans. That surpasses the previous state record of 77 women on Pennsylvania ballots in 2014, when 49 Democrats and 28 Republicans were seeking office.
The higher number of women running this year is a trend across the country.
A record 256 women won U.S. House and Senate primaries across the country.
“Woman candidates have been viewed already as major winners of election 2018,†said Kelly Dittmar, a scholar at the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University.
But even if every woman on a ballot wins her race on Nov. 6, women would still hold less than 25 percent of congressional seats nationwide.
“Achieving gender parity will take more than one cycle,†said Debbie Walsh, director of the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University.
Having more women run, like this year, is the only way to change that, she said.
“Now, we watch to see if these records turn into record numbers of officeholders come November,†Walsh said.
Democrats like their chances.
“We expect women Democrats to fare extremely well in November. Pennsylvania currently has no women in Congress, and Pennsylvania Democrats can send seven this year. A record number of women are running for state legislative seats as well, and we intend to pick up seats in Harrisburg this November,†said Brandon Cwalina, spokesman for the Pennsylvania Democratic Party.
“We’ve seen tremendous Democratic enthusiasm and momentum in voter registration and engagement. We are going to work hard every day from now until November knocking on doors, making phone calls, recruiting volunteers and encouraging Pennsylvanians to vote for Democrats who will restore some sanity to the political process and ensure government works for everyday Pennsylvanians, not special interests,†he said.
Story continues below gallery:
Posted!
1 of 30
2 of 30
3 of 30
4 of 30
5 of 30
6 of 30
7 of 30
8 of 30
9 of 30
10 of 30
11 of 30
12 of 30
13 of 30
14 of 30
15 of 30
16 of 30
17 of 30
18 of 30
19 of 30
20 of 30
21 of 30
22 of 30
23 of 30
24 of 30
25 of 30
26 of 30
27 of 30
28 of 30
29 of 30
30 of 30
McConnell predicts Republican ‘surge’ from Kavanaugh confirmation heading into midterms
More: President Trump seizes on Brett Kavanaugh confirmation as rallying cry in midterms
More: Midterms: Mike Espy out to prove a black Democrat can win in deep-red Mississippi
More: As Election Day approaches, here’s how to register to vote
CLOSE
There’s a good reason Tom Wolf and Scott Wagner are from the same county and running for governor.
Paul Kuehnel, York Daily Record
Â