Women stepping up in primary races
Where are the women? I asked that last summer as nine candidates emerged in the Illinois gubernatorial primary. All men. A group of Chicago Democratic women activists launched a website and campaign. “Zero women are running for governor,” the site declared. The group asked their party: “What’s your plan to support women leaders in our state?”
Women are singularly equipped to give voice and bring change to issues affecting them: accessible health care, affordable housing, reproductive choice, gender and economic equity, education.
In the era of #MeToo, women must step up.
Now, in fact, women are running in Tuesday’s primary, and running hard. Delivering impressive showings in the campaign for Illinois attorney general. Making big noise in congressional contests. Applying heat in key Illinois legislative districts.
State Rep. Jeanne Ives jumped into the GOP gubernatorial primary and has scrambled Gov. Bruce Rauner’s game plan.
In Illinois, 27 women are running for congressional and statewide offices, according to the Center for American Women and Politics. Four women are competing for lieutenant governor, three for attorney general, two in bids for comptroller, and 17 for Congress.
All won’t prevail, but run they must.
Women such as political novice Sharon Fairley, who won accolades as the chief administrator of Chicago’s Civilian Office of Police Accountability, and who served as a federal prosecutor, assistant attorney general and deputy inspector general for the city of Chicago.
Fairley’s quiet intellect, sensible solutions and iron integrity have earned her major newspaper endorsements.
“When I was a young girl, my mother taught me that I have two strikes against me— being a woman and being a person of color,” Fairley, an African- American, told the Daily Northwestern. “And because of that, I’m always going to have to work harder.”
Sol Flores is the executive director of La Casa Norte, a Humboldt Park social service agency. She is battling to win the Democratic primary in the 4th Congressional District, where the retiring U. S. Rep. Luis Gutierrez is trying to clout his buddy Cook County Commissioner Jesus “Chuy” Garcia into the seat. ( Also running is veteran Chicago Police Sgt. Richard Gonzalez.)
Flores was not dissuaded by the hack move. An “Afro- Latino,” she spent part of her childhood in Lincoln Park. At 11, she was sexually abused by a man who lived in her home. She rose to bring ferocious and infectious energy to her community. Flores is leading the construction of a new, $ 20 million facility that will offer neighborhoodbased health services and affordable housing.
Women “need to be at the table,” she told me recently over lunch. “Because we work better when we have more diverse voices. It’s not enough to [ just] be progressive. It’s just not enough.”
Marie Newman is taking on seven- term U. S. Rep. Dan Lipinski. The La Grange businesswoman excoriates the incumbent for being “out of touch” with voters in the 3rd Congressional District, which includes parts of the Southwest Side and extends into the southwest suburbs.
Newman is being touted by a raft of progressives nationwide, from Emily’s List to U. S. Sen. Bernie Sanders.
“We have to right the ship here,” she said over coffee the other day. Her district is trending blue, she argues, and voters will embrace candidates who support femaleforward causes like reproductive choice, gun safety, accessible health care and workers’ rights.
“Only 20 percent of Congress is female,” she noted. “We are 50 percent of the population. This is logical and natural that we should represent 50 percent of Congress.”