When women run for office, they are generally elected at the same rate as men. However, in It Takes More Than A Candidate: Why Women Don’t Run for Office, the authors find that “Deeply embedded patterns of traditional gender socialization pervade US society and continue to make politics a much less likely path for women than men”1. The goal of The Victory of Running is to listen and learn from women, people of marginalized genders and their allies who have run for office but did not get the most votes on election day.
Why start with this pool of people?
Because we live in a world where history is written by those elected, but what happens to people, and especially women, who run for office but do not get the most votes on election day? What happens to every volunteer, donor, and activist who supported their campaign? What happens with the meaningful issues that inspired that person to run? We do not have the answer to these questions, which is precisely why I wanted to create this space. First, of course, I want to celebrate women who bravely put their names on the ballot, regardless of the election’s outcome. Because women who may not receive the most votes are often not given a platform, Coffee and Campaigns provides them with one. Further, according to research, “women contemplating a run for office seek out and require support from a web of connections more so than men…(and)…are more likely to attribute their decisions to run to a desire to help their communities and to address policy issues of particular importance to their districts”2. By giving women who recently ran for office the chance to reflect on their campaign, this series will provide a step that could be a continuation of their motivation to run for office. So, how will this work, and will it make a difference?
How will this work?
I will reach out to candidates, women, women of color, people of marginalized genders and their allies who recently ran for office and did not get the most votes. When researching potential connections, I aim to find candidates who offer a platform that demonstrates alignment with reproductive justice. Reproductive justice is a human rights framework created by Black women, and “SisterSong defines Reproductive Justice as the human right to maintain personal bodily autonomy, have children, not have children, and parent the children we have in safe and sustainable communities.” You can learn more about Reproductive Justice by visiting SisterSong’s website. I believe using this lens when reaching out to people to interview is beneficial because, when considering the motivations women might have to run for office, it can help find alignment with Reproductive Justice.
Having outlined how I might identify candidates to reach out to, I will send them an invitation to participate in a short interview. This interview series, After the Polls Close, will provide an opportunity to chat with women who have run for office and share their experiences about their campaigns. The interviews will be posted on a dedicated YouTube channel. I will then ask each interviewee to share the interview with their existing email list. I will share the interviews with my email list; you can sign up here.
Will it make a difference?
My first answer is, what do we have to lose? However, yes. The research of Lawless and Fox suggests that women experience an ambition gap. Their research demonstrates that: “Among thousands of potential candidates – women and men who work in the same professions from which candidates are most likely to emerge – the gender gap in political ambition in 2021 was just as large as it was ten and twenty years earlier”3. They also point out that: “Observational data reveal that women who live in districts with female congressional candidates are more willing to discuss politics”3. Keeping these two ideas in mind, when a woman runs for office but does not get the most votes on election day, what happens to her supporters? Do the women who are now more willing to discuss politics retreat? I do not have the answer to those questions, but I do think we can create a platform that offers the chance to share their campaign stories, a place that celebrates the effort and work. A platform that believes winning is participating in democracy. A platform that normalizes putting your name on the ballot, running a campaign, and connecting with the people of your district is winning.
Furthermore, by listening to former candidates discuss their campaigns in their own words, sharing their strategies and places of connection, we foster the potential for greater connection, personal growth, and the sharing of civic skills. I want these interviews to expand our base of campaign stories beyond those people who serve in elected office and add an influx of new voices and knowledge to what we know about running for office. These conversations will enable candidates and former candidates to share the stories of their campaigns in their own words, providing inspiration and tangible tools and skills to anyone considering a run for office. These chats celebrate the courage it takes to file for office, raise money, create a campaign, and ask for votes. Let us celebrate the success of candidates who have taken on this process and learn from them as we each embark on our paths of civic leadership.
- Lawless & Fox, 2025, P. 128
- Dolan et al., 2022, P. 98
- Lawless & Fox, 2025, P. 4