CAWP News & Notes: Our Friend Chris Jahnke

Our Friend Chris Jahnke

It is with great sadness that we share the news that Chris Jahnke passed away last week. If you have ever attended one of our Ready to Run® programs, either here in NJ or at many of our partner programs around the country, you know Chris as the brilliant and energetic political communications trainer who made running for office feel a little less daunting. Here at CAWP, we have known her for over two decades as a friend and advocate for women's political participation. Chris dedicated her life to helping more women get elected to office at every level, from presidential candidates to women running for local council. She believed in the power of women's leadership and she did everything she could to give women the tools they needed to be successful, including two books to help women hone their political voice. You can read more about Chris here. The best way we can honor Chris is to continue her work to advance women's political power. We are grateful for her work and will all miss her enormously.

U.S. Senator Kamala Harris joins Geraldine Ferraro and Sarah Palin in becoming the third woman in history tapped as the vice presidential pick, as well as the fourth woman, with Hillary Clinton, on a major-party presidential ticket.

New CAWP Resource: Gender Gap Poll Tracker

CAWP has launched the 2020 Presidential Gender Gap Poll Tracker to monitor gender differences in support for the major-party candidates in the 2020 presidential election at the national level and in battleground states.

This tracker monitors both the gender gap in likely vote choice between men and women voters for the leading candidate and the reported difference in support for each major party candidate among women voters.

Celebrate the VP Nominee, not Biden's Decision to Pick a Woman.

Debbie Walsh and Kelly Dittmar published an op-ed in the USA Today in the days leading up to the VP announcement encouraging people to celebrate the nominee, rather than the act of her selection. "This year's nomination should remind us of the opportunity costs our country has endured by not selecting women for so long. Just as we've reckoned with this across industries and institutions, the costs of forgoing women's contributions to politics in service of maintaining a white, male status quo have been high." Read the full piece here.

The 19th Represents: Electability*

Kelly Dittmar joins The 19th News in their 2020 summit for a conversation about the future of women and the presidency, women running for office, and the myth of electability. Watch the full event here.

'She May Very Well Hold the Key to Biden's Win'

Politico Magazine asked seventeen women for their perspectives on the vice presidential selection, including CAWP's own Debbie Walsh, Kelly Dittmar, and Kimberly Peeler-Allen. See their thoughts, along with fourteen other interesting takes, here.

Charlotta Bass Spears and the Vice Presidency

In this USA TODAY article, CAWP's Jean Sinzdak discusses Charlotta Bass Spears, the first Black woman to run for the vice presidency, back in 1952 for the Progressive Party. Learn more about the women of color who ran for vice president outside of the major parties, including Ellen Wong Mar, the first Asian woman vice presidential candidate, and LaDonna Harris, the first Native American woman vice presidential nominee, at CAWP's selected list of women presidential and vice presidential candidates.

New Records in Election 2020

A number of new records have been set recently for women candidates in the 2020 election. Here's the latest:

Women of color set a new record for congressional candidates, with 266 (175D, 91R) women of color running in 2020, as well as individual record highs for Asian or Pacific Islander women, Black women, Latinas, Middle Eastern and North African women, and Native American women.
There are a record 38 all-women congressional contests this year. Learn more about these races in 2020 and historically here.
There is a new record for women major-party nominees for U.S. House, as well as a new record for Democratic women House nominees. Republicans passed their own record level of nominees in June. View the most up-to-date numbers at our Candidate Summary.

Get the full context on these records, and the number of women running in 2020, with Kelly Dittmar's recent post on our Election Analysis blog, What You Need to Know About the Record Numbers of Women Candidates in 2020.

New Research from RepresentWomen

Recently-released research from our friends at RepresentWomen examines the ways that ranked-choice voting would impact women candidates, and their study finds that women would benefit under RCV systems. From the report: "our research shows that ranked choice voting has continued to have a positive impact on descriptive representation in the United States, as women and people of color continue to run and win in higher numbers in ranked choice elections." Read the report here.

The Suffrage Story, Expanded

Check out this fascinating series of articles from The Washington Post that tell little-heard stories of the fight for the 19th Amendment:

Meanwhile, The New York Times has created a project devoted to enlarging our vision of the story of the suffrage movement, in a series that encompasses a special section in the paper's weekend edition, a nonfiction book for young readers, a virtual play set to premiere on August 18th, and new additions to the NYT's Overlooked obituary series. Learn more about the project here.

And of course, get the context about the past, present, and future of women's participation in American politics with CAWP's Resources for the 19th Amendment Centennial.

On the centennial anniversary of women's suffrage, we reflect on what it took to get us where we are today.

On the verge of new milestones, but still so far to go in the fight for women's full political equality, consider a gift of $100 to CAWP today!

Fund for New Jersey Hiring Program Associate

Our friends at the Fund for New Jersey, a private grant-making foundation working to improve the quality of public policy decision-making on the most significant issues affecting the people of New Jersey and the region, is hiring a program associate for a two-year fellowship position. Learn more about the position and application process here.