When it comes to women in legislative office, the US ranks mind-bogglingly low: 90th in the world… and the election of 2010 was the first year when Congress LOST women in office. Is it any wonder so much anti-woman legislation has been proposed this term — and voted into law?
We need to bring more progressive women into office, on local and state levels as well as Federal. Groups like EMILY’s List and Women’s Campaign Fund are doing the hard work of identifying candidates, training and seeding their campaigns with funding — but in the post-Citizens United World with billionaire superPAC money run amok, the good work they do is not enough.
We can’t outspend the conservative moneymen behind the efforts to take away our reproductive freedoms, gut our educational system, keep our pay low and our opportunities scant. We have to fight back with shoes on the ground, by out-organizing, spreading the word and getting out the vote. And we have to do it across the board: Yes, it is important to re-elect the President. But we need to hold on to our Democratic majority in the Senate, take back the Congress and sweep the states — with pro-choice, progressive women.
In 2008, MOMocrats ran an occasional series spotlighting Democratic women who were running for office, and we called it Run, Mama Run. After progressive women actually lost ground in 2010, we decided we needed to do more. Today, MOMocrats launches its 2012 version of Run, Mama Run: an online tool that will give users the ability to easily find and support women candidates all over the country. And we kicked it off this morning on our MOMochat podcast by hosting Torie Osborn, a progressive candidate in California Assembly District 50.
Your one-stop shop for tracking progressive, pro-choice women running for office
Run, Mama Run Tools.
We’ve set up Run, Mama Run to make it easy for MOMocrats readers to learn about the women running for office in their districts:
- With our interactive map, you can see at a glance where the races are – for Senate, Congress, state and local offices.
- The Run, Mama Run list page gives you quick links and biographical information on all the candidates (80 so far, with more being added)
- And Run, Mama Run profiles will include more in-depth information on these women, with information on how you can help get them elected.
Join the Battle!
This is a huge project that begs for some group-sourcing input from the MOMocrats community.
- Are you in a district with a candidate who’s not yet on our list? Drop us a line with information on your race, so we can add her to our map.
- Help spread the word about your Run, Mama Run candidates by contributing a profile or interview.
- Visit the candidates’ websites for social media, fundraising and volunteer opportunities.
And stay tuned for more Run, Mama Run – it’s going to be a bumpy road.
Hello-I am working with Mary Olbering, mother of three and a candidate who is running for a local county wide seat–Register of Deeds for Hampshire County in Western Mass. Mary is a life-long Democrat, born and raised in Ohio who relocated to Massachusetts for grad school. She met her husband, Jim Gelinas, while in graduate school and when they got married, she stayed. Mary was active in President Obama’s campaign and then worked for two years on our District Attorney’s campaign. Now she is running herself and doing a great job! I listed our website above (www.maryolberding.com) and if you have any questions, please let me know!
Best,
Elizabeth Maynard, Campaign Manager
YES.
Thank you for fighting the good fight!
Love it! We need to shine some light on this issue or nothing’s going to change. It’s time!
I would love to see some info on local candidates. I find the local elections (LA currently, but anyplace I’ve lived) to be the hardest to find unbiased info about, as they are overshadowed by coverage of the presidential election.
I love this! I need a place to go for information….
Brigitta,
We wanted to quickly give people a sense of who’s running on the Westside, specifically Santa Monica to Hollwyood in newly redistricted Assembly District 50, which is why we did a quick show on Torie Osborn. She’s a bit of an underdog candidate and the June 5 California primary election is coming up quick. We wish we could do more coverage of local races in SoCal, but this site is basically always understaffed! That’s why we need your help crowdsourcing! PUT YOUR LINKS AND NAMES HERE IN THE COMMENTS — THANKS!
Thank you Elizabeth Maynard for the information on Mary Olberding — we’ll add as soon as we can.
We’ve got a long list of progressive pro-choice women we need to add. With your help, we’ll get word out.
Cynematic