Among Our Fantastic Democratic State Legislators, 30 Are Women. That’s Cause for Celebration & Hope.

ADLCC recently danced a little happy dance about our wonderful state legislators and highlighted that 30 of them (out of a total of 43) are women, in recognition of the final week of Women’s History Month. I gotta say, that gave me great satisfaction. I have the pleasure of personal acquaintance with some of them, and they are inspiring and dynamic leaders. I hope that I can meet them all!

With just a week left in Women’s History Month, we wanted to take a moment to celebrate the 30 amazing Democratic women in the Arizona Legislature.

Whether they’re defending our reproductive rights, fighting for our public schools, or pushing to conserve Arizona’s natural resources, they make us proud every single day!

We want to send more Democratic women to the state legislature to join these outstanding legislators, but we can’t do it without your help… A week from today, we hit our end-of-quarter deadline. Will you support our mission and chip in today?

These women represent our state’s future and we’re proud to support them as they deliver on their promises to make Arizona a better place for all.

Myself, and all the authors here (including several wonderful women) certainly celebrate our Democratic women leaders, as well. That we also have many women governing as Democrats in our top state and county leadership roles (Governor Hobbs, Attorney General Mayes, Corporation Commissioner Tovar [who will be appearing at TheDGT.org meeting this coming Monday with Sandra Kennedy and Lauren Kuby], and Pima County Attorney Conover) is a point of pride and a source of confidence for so many of us.

I have opined in the past about the special advantages that the Democratic Party’s commitment to fostering and supporting women in elected office conveys on us when I endorsed Yolanda Bejarano for ADP Chair. I’ll reiterate those sentiments here:

You see, when I first became really active in politics it was 1992. For those with a longer than average political memory, that was widely called ‘The Year of the Woman’. It was that year women candidates finally attained sufficient numbers [Ed: both nationally and here in AZ] that one could reasonably foresee women approaching parity in elected offices in the not-too-distant future. We were then still a very long way – and still are far short – from that goal, but that was the first glimmer that women might finally achieve the degree of representation they deserve in elected offices.

I believe we have to make it a priority as a Party to achieve that goal of proportionate representation in elected positions. I think that parity is necessary to achieve formal recognition of equal rights for women in our Constitution. Some might think it is slightly regressive to prioritize the sex of a candidate, but Dobbs proved decisively that the rights of our female citizens are still negotiable to far too many people in our nation.

In addition, I simply believe due to my own experience that women are – on average – just better leaders than men [Ed. especially in a democratic government]. I believe that the more the Democratic Party leans into promoting and supporting female candidates for elected office, the better we will do at the polls. It is simply my own experience and judgment that women candidates are, on average, more practical, more relatable, more sensible, more empathetic, better communicators and listeners, less ideological, and less ego-driven than male candidates. I have a clear bias, and I own that.

Add to my own bias for female leaders the adage ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” I don’t think it is a coincidence that the Democratic Party has been making steady progress over the past decade in electoral politics here in Arizona and that during most of that time, our Party has been led by strong women: Alexis Tameron Kinsey (2015–2017), Felicia Rotellini (2018–2021), and Raquel Terán (2021- Present), have done a wonderful job, I see no reason to break that laudable streak.

So now we can celebrate the fact that MORE than 50% of our Arizona Democratic legislative team are women. I say “why stop at 70%?” When what you are doing is working, keep doing it! We are on the brink of taking back Arizona’s whole government from the AZGOP in ’24, and it is in large part our Democratic women leaders who brought us to this historic turning point!