The election results have been devastating for women who had hoped that a woman would finally lead the nation for the first time in the country’s nearly 250-year history. That didn’t happen, and Kamala Harris supporters are trying to figure out where to go from here.
Despite some women feeling lost, betrayed, and rejected, women are already springing into action and organizing for the next election cycle. That’s why nearly 100 women joined Vote Run Lead Action’s post-election discussion on Tuesday.
Vote Run Lead was founded in 2014 to invite, uplift, and train women to run for office. In 2023, Vote Run Lead Action emerged after the organization leaders realized a need for a stronger voice and more powerful engagement. The nonpartisan organization trains pro-democracy, anti-racist, and feminist women to address the underrepresentation of women in legislatures.
During the panel discussion, participants asked questions about the next steps and engaging and organizing more people for the next election. Some of the questions dropped in the chat included navigating the hate post-election and tips on having tough conversations that lead to solutions.
“We’re going to have to go as low as we can and build from the ground all the way back up,” Rhonda Briggins told participants. She was referring to getting women elected in their local and state legislatures. Briggins is known for her work in leading Black sororities and fraternities to organize their communities to the polls.
One thing the panel made clear on the call was not to blame the vice president for her loss, who had a little less than 100 days to campaign after President Joe Biden dropped out of the race.
“It doesn’t mean that she ran a perfect campaign. It doesn’t mean that there were things, in retrospect, you can do differently,“ said Reshma Saujani, head of Moms First and founder of Girls Who Code. “She inherited the obstacles that she faced and we need to be honest about that.”
Beyond her gender, panel leaders say Harris’s race also played a role in her loss to Trump.
“I think the Vice President did an unbelievable job in unbelievably difficult circumstances,” said Celinda Lake, a pollster and president of Lake Research Partners. “But, when the transition happened, I think we needed to remind ourselves how difficult it is to elect a woman, especially a woman of color.”
Where Women Had Gains In The 2024 Election
As noted on the call, there were some wins for women this past election. Two Black women, Angela Alsobrooks from Maryland and Lisa Blunt Rochester from Delaware will serve in the U.S. Senate together for the first time in the nation’s history.
In New Mexico and Colorado, women are now leading in the state legislatures.
“We came into this election cycle with only one state in the nation with a women’s majority, that was Nevada,” said Sabrina Shelman, chief political officer for Vote Run Lead. “We have added two more states to that column.”
Other wins for women, according to Celinda Lake, were that women gained 12 seats in the Montana state legislature. Montana voters also elected a woman to the Supreme Court.
Women on Vote Run Lead’s panel said another win for 2024: the first “childcare election,” as candidates on both sides made childcare an important issue.
“My message to everyone on this call, as we enter this new phase, as painful as it is, do not lose sight of who you are fighting for,” Saujani added. “We cannot sit out the next four years, no matter how much we want to turn off that television and crawl up in bed.”
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