Female focus: Caucus readies women for office
Riding a wave of historic elections of women across the nation and in Shelby County, the National Women’s Political Caucus is hosting its annual meeting in Memphis this weekend.
“We know that in a lot of instances women are the backbones of most campaigns,” said Deidre Malone, first vice president of the caucus and a former Shelby County Commissioner. “We make the phone calls, we help with strategy, but a lot of us have not stepped up and decided to run for office ... This is an exciting time.”
The two-day meeting, which included a candidate training on Friday and will include a free film screening, is hosted at the Hilton Memphis and the National Civil Rights museum.
Friday’s training included sections on how to communicate with donors, how to answer tough questions without losing support and how to take advantage of the “Year of the Woman.”
The original “Year of the Woman” was 1992, when women won elections to the U.S. House and Senate in record numbers.
A new record came in 2018, when Politico reported that more women signed up to run for top elected positions than ever before.
Even local elections have seen a surge in women candidates. Earlier this month, women won 9 out of 13 countywide races. For the first time, a majority of Shelby County administrators, school board members and circuit court judges are women.
“This will be the biggest year in women’s history in regard to women in politics,” said Cathy Allen, vice president of education and training for the caucus, as she began candidate training Friday.
Donna Lent, an elected official in New York and president of the national caucus, attributed the surge in female candidates partly to the 2016 election of Donald Trump, which she called “a shock to the system.”
Katherine Burgess
“We’re seeing it all over the place,” Lent said. “We’re seeing women run like never before and having great success.”
Trainees Friday included Danielle Schonbaum, the Democrat nominee who is challenging Republican Mark White for his seat in the state House of Representatives.
Another trainee was Erika Sugarmon, a Shelby County teacher who lost to J. Ford Canale in the race to temporarily fill the City Council seat resigned by Philip Spinosa Jr.
Sugarmon said she attended the training since she is considering running again. Former students — including several women — have also written her saying they might run for office.
“Some have said if you run, I’ll run,” she said. “I think we need new leadership, young blood. The same people keep running over and over again.”
Saturday evening, the caucus is offering a screening of the film “Equal Means Equal” at the National Civil Rights Museum. The film is open to the public, but RSVPs are required at events@nwpc.org.
Latrivia Welch is president of the Memphis Women’s Political Caucus, the organization’s local chapter.
While so many women running and succeeding is “fulfilling,” Welch said there is more work to be done.
“We have to make sure we are a part of every single discussion when it comes to the national platform, because we are businesswomen, we are teachers, we are leaders, we are mothers, we are wives, we are caregivers,” Welch said. “We need to be able to make sure those women who are leading every day are also leading in our government.”