For many, Wednesday morning of last week was much like the day after Election Day in 2016 when former Secretary of State and Senator Hillary Clinton lost her presidential bid. Now, following the Vice President Kamala Harris loss, many of us are equally frustrated.
From the ashes of despair, there are some silver linings – Democratic women in the Georgia General Assembly will outnumber their Republican colleagues by a 3.2 to one margin even as the total number of women in the Georgia General Assembly will drop from 82 to 76 in January.
With hard work, we can make changes for the better If we follow the example of the Georgia women who channeled their frustration following the 2016 loss by working hard to elect more women. Who knows what the next few years might bring because since 2017, 45 “new face” candidates have been elected in Georgia?
Many women who had never been active in a political campaign before learned how to knock doors on behalf of Hillary Clinton. Many of these same women soon used this new skill set to campaign for Jon Ossoff in a 2017 special election congressional bid. While he lost that first race, we do now call him Senator Ossoff.
Applications to the WIN Leadership Academy in 2017 mushroomed and the WIN List board made a bold move to accept 80 women for a class to be divided into a spring and fall cohort. After the first WLA class in 2010, no class before 2017 had more than 20 students and since 2017, all classes have included 30 students or more. More women trained has meant more women seeking office and WINning at all levels.
Since 2016, 45 Georgia WIN List endorsed women have been elected to Georgia Senate or House seats, with 17 of them FLIPping seats from Red to Blue. In January, there will be a total of 76 women in the General assembly – 58 Democrats and 18 Republicans or 31 percent women. The 2016 numbers: a total of 57 women – 36 Democrats women and 21 Republicans.
The four women newly elected in November are SD 34 Kenya Wicks, HD 64 Sylvia Wayfer Baker, HD 143 Anissa Jones, and HD 145 Tangie Herring. They will serve alongside two other women – HD 61 Mekyah McQueen and HD 117 Mary Ann Santos who were elected during the Democratic Primary earlier this year.
While the number of Democratic women House members has stayed the same, Republicans will have four fewer female House members. In the Georgia Senate, Democratic women drop from 14 to 12 and Republican women Senators drop from two to one. This means the percentage of women in the Georgia General Assembly will fall from the current 34.7 percent to 31 percent.
We will be able to truthfully continue to describe the Republicans in Georgia government as predominately Stale, Pale and Male.
Of the six new women who were elected in 2024, three – Representative-elects Baker, Herring and Santos – won newly created “open” majority black districts created by court order following lawsuits over gerrymandered districts. Technically these three not FLIPped seats. The same maps which created these new districts also placed currently serving Democratic incumbents in the same district. In January, the balance of power in the Georgia Senate remains unchanged and Republicans will now have a 100 to 80 majority in the House, giving House Democrats a two seat gain for the cycle.
In a series of 2017 special elections as the turnover for those angling to seek statewide office in 2018 began, a victory for 2010 WLA alumnae Jen Jordan removed the Georgia GOP Supermajority in the state senate. This was a huge victory for Democrats. Another 2010 WLA Alumna, Nikema Williams won a Senate seat when a long-serving Senator embarked upon an unsuccessful Mayoral bid. A more recent WLA graduate, Deborah Gonzalez, flipped an Athens house seat when a Republican woman was appointed to a judgeship.
In later years, many of the women who had worked so hard in the Ossoff sixth District Congressional campaign later successfully ran for office.
IN 2018, Jen Jordan and Nikema Williams held onto the Senate victories from the year before and two more women FLIPped seats from Red to Blue. Across the rotunda, eight WIN List endorsed women FLIPped House seats and a ninth woman won a safeAlbany area Democratic seat. This gave WIN List a new record for the number of newly elected women in one year.
The 2018 election results were particularly meaningful in the metro Atlanta area because victories for Georgia WIN List endorsed women triggered a major power shift for legislative delegations in Fulton, Cobb and Gwinnett Counties. Each of these delegations shifted to Democratic control, some for the first time in decades.
While there were fewer FLIPped seats in 2020, the women elected in 2020 quickly found leadership roles in their county delegations and the Democratic caucuses. The newly elected women included Rep. Stacey Evans returning to the House after a 2018 loss in her bid for governor. Four new WIN List endorsed women were elected to the Senate, with two of them FLIPping seats and seven new WIN List endorsed women were elected to House seats, with four of them FLIPs.
Following the release of 2020 census figures, both Senator Dr. Michelle Au and Rep. Dr. Rebecca Mitchell became the focus of Republicans who gerrymandered new legislative district lines.
Despite skillfully drawn maps which favored Republicans, WIN List endorsed women persisted in 2022 – WINning one Senate seat and 13 House seats. However, only one Cobb County district FLIPped from red to blue.
The 2023 first term class of WIN List endorsed women was the largest in WIN List herstory. Former Senator Dr. Michelle Au had run for a House seat after being gerrymandered out of her Senate district. Sadly, Rep. Tish Naghise died in early March 2023 – the first woman legislator to die while serving in decades.
Not all of the 2024 election “losses” and setbacks are solely a result an electoral contest. Nationwide and in Georgia, long-serving women retired and not all of them were replaced by other women. Going forward, we must always remember when a woman in office is replaced by a man, it is a step backwards for women!
In 2025, nationwide, there will be six fewer congresswomen in January while the number of Senators stays the same. Congress will have a total of 145 women members or 27.1 percent – down from a record of 28.2 percent set in 2023. In January, the 106 Democratic women in Congress will outnumber the 39 Republican women by 3.7 to one.
The Center for American Women in Politics at Rutgers University tracks the number of women serving in office nationwide. The highlight of post-election take-away is to note 13 women – eight Democrats and five Republicans – will serve as governor beginning in 2025. This is one more than the previous record of 12 and means women will hold 24 percent of gubernatorial races.
CAWP is still working to compile figures on state-by-state legislative rankings. However, it appears Georgia will not be the only state where the percentage of women will decrease in 2025, particularly since Republican women nominees for legislative seats decreased nationwide this year.
“Women are 37.6% of all state House nominees in 2024, but they are 49.8% of all Democratic state House nominees and just 25.4% of Republican state House nominees,” a CAWP press release noted prior to the election. Further, Democratic women are at or above parity with Democratic men in 30 of 49 state House chambers. By contrast, there are no state House chambers where Republican women match or exceed the representation of Republican men.
Of the 77 WIN List endorsed women on the Roevember ballot, six were the earlier mentioned “new face” candidates. In the Senate, six currently serving WIN List women won contested races and a lucky four more faced no opposition. In the House, three WIN List endorsed women won primary only contests, 17 incumbents won contested November races and an additional 16 faced no opposition.
This means of the 77 women who were WIN List endorsed for November, 52 won their races. Of the remaining 23, there had been high hopes for a handful of suburban Atlanta women challenging incumbent Republicans for the House Caucus top targeted FLIP seats. The issue of reproductive freedom was a core part of their campaign message. Regrettably, higher than anticipated Trump turnout combined with MILLIONS of dollars the governor and speaker spent on these contests and incumbent Republicans prevailed.
However, all of the endorsed women for these highly competitive top target seats moved the needle of anticipated Democratic Performance. Each time this happens, Republicans are put on notice just how vulnerable they are as Georgia inches closer to being a majority minority state and the demographics of the state move towards a population which favors Democratic policies.
Other endorsed candidates ran for House and Senate seats knowing the deck was stacked against them. They ran as champions of Democratic values in an effort to spotlight the real policy differences between Democrats and Republicans. WIN List deeply appreciates their courage and willingness to represent Democrats in hostile territory.
This was not an easy campaign season and WIN List is grateful for all the sacrifices made by all of our candidates.
The Georgia WIN List mission to preserve and protect reproductive freedom has never been more important. WIN List plans to expand the training opportunities offered in 2025 to continue building the bench for women serving in office at all levels.
2025 will be an important year for electing women to municipal office and school boards. 2026 will be a key year for fielding candidates for statewide constitutional offices and legislative seats.