Hyde-Smith is Mississippi’s GOP agriculture and commerce commissioner. She’s set to replace Sen. Thad Cochran (R-Miss.), who announced his retirement earlier this month due to continuing health issues.
Rutgers University’s Center for American Women and Politics keeps track of female representation and reports that Vermont and Mississippi were, until now, the only states to never send a woman to Congress.
“It’s sad that we’re last. We should be embarrassed to be last,” said Ruth Hardy, executive director of Emerge Vermont, a nonprofit that trains and promotes Democratic women considering running for office. “I appreciate the work of our congressional delegation, but it’s past time for us to send a woman to Washington.”
“This is exactly why we started Emerge Vermont,” said Rep. Jill Krowinski (D-Burlington), “to build a strong bench of women in politics.”
Vermont’s place at the bottom is in stark contrast to neighboring New Hampshire, which has an all-female congressional delegation: Democratic Sens. Jeanne Shaheen and Maggie Hassan, and Democratic Reps. Annie Kuster and Carol Shea-Porter. RepresentWomen, a nonpartisan advocacy group working to reduce the gender imbalance of American politics, gave New Hampshire a grade of “A” and assigned a “D” to Vermont, largely because of the state’s failure to elect women to Congress.
“This is not a distinction to be proud of, but I actually feel optimistic about the future,” said Cary Brown, executive director of the Vermont Commission on Women. “I think we’re poised really well. Women are flying up the ranks politically. We don’t have to worry about retaining that distinction for long.”
Her optimism is borne out in other numbers from Rutgers. It puts Vermont in a first-place tie with Arizona for female representation in the state legislature, 40 percent of whose members are women. Last week, when Vermont House committees were finalizing work on tax, budget and capital bills, and dealing with an unexpected $28 million windfall from tobacco companies, all of the key committee chairs were women — and that fact basically went unnoticed.
There are two factors that have limited opportunities for Vermont to send women to Washington, D.C. The state has only three congressional seats, and it has amassed an unusual amount of seniority. Congressman Peter Welch (D-Vt.) is the junior member of the delegation, and he’s been in Congress for 12 years. Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) has been in the Senate since 1975. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) has been a congressman or senator since 1991. Their long tenures have created a bottleneck for women.
“There’s something to be said for seniority,” Hardy noted. “But there’s a lot to be said for diversity in representation. Other voices need to be heard.”
Someday, we will elect a woman to Congress. Maybe even two or three.
But Vermont will always be last among the states — just as the Boston Red Sox will forever be the last baseball team to integrate. It’s not a point of pride for a state with a reputation for openness and equity.
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I seem to recall a certain Martha Rainville had a legitimate shot at being elected to Congress. Against one of the men in the above photograph. You know and I know that those bemoaning Vermont’s last place distinction in the article didn’t vote for her. So, they aren’t genuinely concerned about Vermont not electing a female representative to Congress. Instead, they want one having the preferred political leanings, and will vote for a male in a heartbeat if the female candidate doesn’t pass their political litmus test.
Let’s Elect a Woman This November, It’s About Time to Give Peter the Boot !
They can’t win if they don’t run ! To the best of my knowledge, with the exception in Cris Ericson of Chester, no Vermont woman has ever run to represent the state in Congress ! I understand she is running against Welsh, maybe we should let he bypass the election process and give her the job !
Chris Roy, I don’t know if you are intentionally being pig-headed or not. Your comment was the equivalent of arguing: “I’m not racist, I have a black friend.” Let me explain:
Vermonters should not have to choose between electing someone who shares their experiences and shares their belief systems. White men have never had to choose but women, people of color, and the LGBT community have only had their belief systems represented (if that).
Women should not have to give up their belief system to support someone with their shared experience of being female. One female candidate is not equality.
This article starts to highlight (but stops a little short) in the problem Vermont has with diversity of candidates (meaning multiple women running at once, non white candidates, LGBT candidates, etc) holding diverse opinions. This would give us the best representation.
Yes, we have an incumbency problem. Vermont also has an issue attracting a strong batch of diverse candidates for each office.
So what’s the point?
Would a female better protect tax money? Make the water and air cleaner? Cut crime? Reduce the threat of war? Raise the literacy rate? Reduce infant mortality?
Edit the column if you figure out why gender really matters who is elected or appointed to office.
What a great opportunity to get some super legislative talent out of Montpelier and the State. Wow, Ayer, Cummings, White, Maxine what’s her name from Moretown And Morris of Bennington
Bumstead of Sheburne. All just great candidates. There are more, choose your favorite and tell us why.
This distinction is really just a function of statistics. We’ve only had one real opening in our congressional delegation for the last 27 years (in Bernie’s first Senate run he was basically an incumbent) and that went to Peter Welch fairly narrowly over Martha Rainville.
Seriously what is the point of this article except to attempt to get a rise out of people? Leahy and Sanders are untouchable for the most part and there is absolutely no reason women can’t run against them in the next election. Shlock SJW journalism. Same deal with ‘racism’ articles in the whitest state in America. Move to the south if you really want to see racism still in action….and do something about it.
I don’t see women lining up to run for office. Lets start with qualification first. I have never voted for these three but haven’t seen a good candidate that went up against them. Vermont has a tradition of reelecting incumbents.
“This is exactly why we started Emerge Vermont,” said Rep. Jill Krowinski (D-Burlington), “to build a strong bench of women in politics.”
It’s important to point out that this organization has actively campaigned against women without a ‘D’ party affiliation. If diverse gender representation is its mission, perhaps this group will reconsider its partisan actions.
The only women I recall running for Congress are Susan Sweetser and Martha Rainville, neither of whom deserved the job by virtue of their policy positions, not their gender. And I just love how conservative men, the people most responsible for suppressing women in the political arena, are embracing the notion of electing a woman based solely on their hatred for the policies of the men who currently hold the offices. The endless hypocracy of Republicans would be amusing, were it not so dangerous to the nation.