Originally published by Patricia Murphy in the Atlanta Journal Constitution.
In another life, you could imagine Melita Easters as a grand society hostess. Her South Georgia accent, strawberry blonde bob and affinity for pimento cheese recipes all recall a time when powerful women in Georgia might have hosted parties instead of running them.
But in reality, Easters is a thoroughly modern power player in Georgia politics, constantly working her social and professional networks to get pro choice, Democratic women elected to the Georgia Legislature. Eventually, she says, one will make it to the Governor’s Mansion, too.
“There are many, many examples of smart, strong, well-funded women candidates who have lost to mediocre men in Georgia,” she told me.
Misogyny is alive and well in both parties, she said.
“I just view working to elect women as my form of resistance and trying to make the world a better place for my grandchildren.”
Easters has eight “practically perfect” grandchildren, but she’s not your average grandma.
She grew up in tiny Lenox, Georgia, pop. 752, near Adel, which is “so close to hell you can see Sparks,” the local joke goes, referring to the name of the nearby town. That’s where Easters found her earliest political inspiration among her mother’s cookbooks, where a recipe for Senate white bean soup was printed on thick Congressional stationery. The recipe had been sent by the Easters’ congresswoman, U.S. Rep. Iris Blitch, the first woman elected to Congress from Georgia.
“There was always evidence to me with that recipe that women could be in politics,” she remembered.
After college, a highly publicized divorce, and time as a journalist and press aide for Democratic campaigns, Easters co-founded Georgia WIN List after her friend, Mary Margret Oliver, lost the Democratic primary for lieutenant governor in 1998 in a runoff to Mark Taylor. Oliver had originally finished in first place of six candidates on Election Day.
“She was the most qualified woman ever to seek statewide office,” Easters said. “A group of us who had supported her said, ‘Enough is enough with the good ole boy system. We’ve got to do something.’”
The result was a local version of EMILY’s List, the Washington-D. C., based PAC founded to elect pro choice Democratic women to Congress. What began as a volunteer and fundraising group in Georgia added candidate recruitment, endorsements and eventually campaign trainings for potential candidates and staff alike.
Since then, WIN List has helped elect more than 100 women to the Georgia Legislature, including 53 women currently serving. They’ve trained 2,300 women to run for office or work in campaigns with classes on field operations, fundraising, messaging and communications, and the legislative process.
Among the first class of the WIN List Academy were U.S. Rep. Nikema Williams, D-Atlanta, and former state Sen. Jen Jordan, the Democratic nominee for attorney general in 2022. State Rep. Stacey Evans joined the board just after she graduated from law school. Dozens more populate the General Assembly as members or staffers.
In ways large and small, they all faced some version of the challenges Easters had originally set out to make better.
“When we started, it was harder for the women to raise money. They weren’t taken as seriously,” she said. “At the General Assembly, they were still kind of patted on the head and called ‘little lady.’”
Over time, female candidates said the group became the teacher, network, funding source and sounding board they never have had before — essentially a new old girls network.
