What’s Your Call to Action?

From education to reproductive rights to a general lack of change, there are plenty of policies that each of us has found… less than satisfying. Throughout history, dissatisfaction has always been the precursor to change–and that still applies today! 

We’ve interviewed numerous women from the She Should Run Community about what spurred them to run for office, and we’ve pulled their responses together for you here to serve as a catalyst for your own run. 

For many of these women, it was an injustice they saw happening within a system or to someone close to them. They saw a problem that needed to be addressed and realized that they needed to be the ones to do it. Hear from this diverse group of women and their stories, organized by issue area. We hope this inspires you to take the reins in your own community and embark on your own journey to elected leadership! 

“What inspired you to run for office?” 

Gender Representation

“In 2016, there was only one woman serving in the Wyoming Senate (30 senators total). I took my then 8-year-old daughter to watch them debate and she innocently asked if girls were allowed to be in the Senate. I thought about her question for weeks and it prompted me to run.” –Affie Ellis, State Senator, WY

“I was nine weeks pregnant with my daughter when the six-week abortion ban went into effect. I knew in that moment that if we want to see change, we need more women to run for office, more pregnant women, and women with families running for office. I decided to run for Attorney General of Texas because I wanted to make sure my daughter grew up to be who she wanted to be, to make decisions for herself, and to be treated as an equal.” –Rochelle Garza, Nominee for Attorney General, TX

“I have had the calling to serve since I was a little girl. There was always this little voice that told me girls don’t get far in politics. Fast forward many years, my husband and I brought potential problems with a road design expansion that would have a negative impact on our plaza and the neighborhood behind our business. For over seven years we were ignored and so was the ‘problem.’ Finally, it became obvious that the road expansion problem was getting out of control and was dangerous. We fought City Hall and we won a 10-year battle. That was when I realized, I could no longer run away from getting involved. I never wanted another citizen to feel so helpless and ignored by local government.” –Ruthie Davis Schlabach, County Commissioner, FL

Disability Awareness and Advocacy

“Public education saved my life. My family was told that I belonged in a school for the severely disabled, as I am autistic and I have cerebral palsy. I disagreed with this assessment and got a law degree instead. The trigger moment for me was learning about how an autistic student in our district was dragged out of school because she had an ‘autistic meltdown.’ That student could have very easily been me in high school. So I decided to run for the local school board.” –Nicki Vander Meulen, School Board Member, WI

“I have a special needs child and have had to navigate county resources for him for 21 years and it’s impossible. It was a point in time that I knew if I couldn’t get access to care for him, my neighbors couldn’t either. It, along with extreme disappointment in my representation on the board, was my triggering point.” –Trista Martinson, County Commissioner, MN

Racism

“Looking around my city and county and seeing that they are increasingly unlivable for low-income people and people of color. [I chose to run for] this office because Multnomah County is the social service safety net for the folks I’m most concerned about, and, through offering health care and basic social services, has [had an] immediate impact on [my community’s] daily lives.” –Susheela Jayapal, County Commissioner, OR 

“Someone told me that the city I lived in wasn’t ready for diversity in leadership and with a name like mine, I was unelectable. I have always loved local office because of the direct contact you have with the community.” –Farrah N. Khan, Mayor, CA

“[I was inspired to run] after the 2016 election when my then 7-year-old daughter began crying when she learned who won the presidential election because she had heard the rhetoric about all the undocumented or Latino people being sent away. I told her ‘no,’ that wasn’t going to happen, and then I got involved locally with our Indivisible chapter. From there, someone planted a seed in me to run for legislative office, as no other Democrat was running for this seat, and I decided to throw my hat in the ring. I knew it had primarily been held by a Democrat, but we had lost the seat for the past three elections. I knew we could flip it back and we did!” –Muffy Davis, State Representative, ID

“When we learned that there would be no charges against the officer who murdered Michael Brown in 2014, I was participating in protests in Atlanta and feeling that moment very deeply. As our march passed by the gold dome of the state capitol, I got caught up in the reflection of what it would take to really make change; that’s the moment when things really aligned in my mind that I needed to run for office and start using my own agency to push the state in the right direction.” –Park Cannon, State Representative, GA

Community and Government Disconnect

“During the summer of 2020 when COVID was just really hitting our communities hard, I watched the city council meetings and their response to the murder of George Floyd and the increasing pandemic issues affecting our unhoused population, which led to an encampment on the steps of City Hall. This was a HUGE moment for our community, but it seemed like council treated the public as second-class citizens and without consideration for their current circumstances. […] I wanted to run then and bring someone to council who would consider [the] citizen perspective, work to elevate the voices most often silenced and forgotten, and create space for everyone in our city to be involved in the decisions affecting them.” –April Fournier, City Council, ME

“I was tired of politicians who hear but don’t listen. People tell you exactly what their struggles are and it’s up to our elected leaders to take themselves out of the equation and think about the bigger picture to influence change. We need people who will do the work. People who aren’t afraid to challenge the status quo because that’s the only way that we arrive at evolution so I ran for city council. I chose city council because I wanted to enact change that was the closest to a constituent.” –Roxy Ndebumadu, City Council, MD

“A representative’s salary in Georgia isn’t much, certainly not enough to live on for a year. That tends to select for individuals with enough personal wealth or flexible jobs where they’re not worried about missing three months of the year for legislative duties, which disqualifies what I think most people would call a ‘normal’ person’s schedule. It’s just another aspect of how certain people want to make government a country club for the same types of people and keep others out. Myself, I’m a teacher and a doula; and I think it’s part of my mission to go in there and break that up, as well as do everything I can so that more ‘average’ people could also make their way inside.” –Park Cannon, State Representative, GA

Although these eleven women came from diverse backgrounds, ran for different offices, and were passionate about different issues, they all shared one common motivation: the desire to solve a problem they saw in their community. But the ability to drive change isn’t just limited to them. Everyone has the power to make a difference–every story, experience, and voice matters in shaping a better future, including yours!