Monday, Dec. 17, 2018
Women set records in the 2018 election, both in terms of the number of female candidates and the number who won offices. As they prepare to take their oaths next month, guest host Alex Olgin examines the impact these women will have on state and national politics.
The "year of the woman" resulted in a surge of women winning office, from Congress to legislatures across the country.
Women, for the first time, will hold more than 100 seats in the U.S. House. More than 2,000 women will hold seats in legislatures, including 45 in North Carolina - the most in a decade.
One of the newly-elected members, Mecklenburg Democrat Rachel Hunt, said women were "incredibly instrumental" in her narrow victory.
Hunt was one of six women to knock off male incumbents in Mecklenburg County at the legislative and county commission level.
But Kelly Dittmar, a scholar at the Center for American Women and Politics, cautions against declaring "mission accomplished."
Mission advanced, but not accomplished for women in election 2018 https://t.co/B8kF6jgh7h via @latimes
— Kelly Dittmar (@kdittmar) November 13, 2018
GUESTS
Representative-elect Christy Clark, North Carolina House, Democrat-District 98 (@ChristyClarkNC)
Representative-elect Rachel Hunt, North Carolina House, Democrat-District 103 (@HuntForNCHouse)
Dr. Kelly Dittmar, scholar at Rutgers University's Center for American Women and Politics; co-author of A Seat at the Table: Congresswomen's Perspectives on Why Their Presence Matters (@kdittmar)