Women will have a strong presence on this year’s election ballots and the number of females running for political office are expected to keep growing, Bartholomew County political party leaders said, although their explanations for that phenomenon differ.
The current makeup of elected government leaders skews heavily male. Men occupy 19 of 26 offices that will be filled in elections that are on Bartholomew County ballots this year.
At the state level, no women currently represent Bartholomew County in the state House or Senate. In five races in the two chambers combined, three females are on the primary ballot, however.
In township government, three of nine trustees are women.
Among six elected department heads in county government, three women are incumbents and five women are seeking these positions.
One judge’s race is on the ballot, with an incumbent male running for re-election, although another two other judges are women.
In the highest levels of county government, one commissioner is up for re-election among the three positions, all occupied by men. And on the county council, two women currently serve among the seven members. Four races are on the May 8 ballot, with one female incumbent.
Women are competing in both the Republican and Democratic primaries in hopes of replacing the retiring Milo Smith as 59th District state representative, and a woman is challenging an incumbent in the 69th District for the second time. Both State House districts include some or all of Bartholomew County.
Overall, there has been a sharp increase in the number of women running for a seat in the Indiana General Assembly. Seventy-five women are campaigning to serve in the state legislature during this primary season, which is double the number that ran four years ago.
More than 50 of them are Democrats. Four years ago, 22 Democrat women made bids to become a state lawmaker.
Tamara Watson, a retired Indiana State Police trooper, is attempting to become the county’s first female sheriff, challenging two males — incumbent Matt Myers and retired law enforcement administrator Rob Kittle — in the GOP primary.
Trump factor?
Democratic Central Committee chairman Bob Hyatt interprets the trend as evidence that women are saying “enough is enough.”
From Hyatt’s perspective, that increase is largely due to the 2016 election of Republican businessman Donald Trump as the nation’s 45th president.
“A lot of his statements about women, as well as the way he handled earlier relationships, sparked a lot of (motivation),” Hyatt said.
The Women’s March on Washington that immediately followed Trump’s inauguration stirred up a stronger sense of female empowerment that resulted in more women candidates this year, Hyatt said.
But Republican Party chairwoman Barb Hackman said strong female leadership has been around for decades in Columbus area politics.
While Hackman said she noticed the 23 female Republican candidates running for Statehouse seats is up from 15 just four years ago, she said women have held prominent offices on both the state and local level for as long as she can remember.
Rather than a reaction to Trump, the increase in female candidates reflects evolving gender roles in homes and the workplace, said Hackman, who has served more than a decade as county auditor.
To illustrate her point of long-established female leadership in politics, Hackman game examples that include:
Four of Indiana’s five recent lieutenant governors have been women; Republican Suzanne Crouch currently holds that office.
Two other prominent state office holders are female: Secretary of State Connie Lawson and Indiana Treasurer Kelly Mitchell; Ann DeVore of Columbus served as state auditor from 1987 to 1994.
Evelyn Pence, who has been on the Bartholomew County Council since 1980, is the longest-serving elected official in local government.
Half of the previous four mayors of Columbus were female — Nancy Ann Brown (1980-1983) and Kristen Brown (2012-2015).
Two women, Sylvia Kiel and Juanita Harden, have served as Bartholomew County commissioners since the 1980s.
“I could go on and on,” Hackman said. “Maybe people are seeing it more, but (women in politics) is not a new trend.”
At the state and federal levels, records are indeed being shattered in the number of women running specifically for legislative seats — and most of them are Democrats, Hyatt said.
Besides a 127 percent increase in females running for the Indiana General Assembly in Democratic primaries, there were 309 women from the two major parties running for the U.S. House of Representatives after the first week of April.
That tops the previous record of 298 set in 2012.
“Women have long been underrepresented in legislative offices from top to bottom, and that is a big thing,” Hyatt said.
In Indiana, women are running in each of the state’s nine congressional districts, only two of which are currently represented by Democrats.
Motivating issues for female Democrats include gender pay gaps in the workplace, as well as conservative males who make decisions on best health practices for women based on their ideological or religious beliefs, Hyatt said.
Other significant issues include education, early childhood development and family leave, according to the Center for Women in American Politics at Rutgers University.
But most of these women will be facing formidable challenges. They still have to survive party primaries and win the general election, often against an incumbent with name recognition and a large reservoir of campaign cash.
“It is disappointing, but the biggest thing out there in politics is money,” Hyatt said. “If you can raise it and spend tons of it, the odds will be overwhelmingly in your favor.”
Hackman said she is pleased that great women continue to step into the political arena, which provides valuable diversity and multiple perspectives that benefit everyone, she said.
“But at the end of the day, you want the best person,” the GOP chairwoman said.
For Hackman, that means a qualified and honest candidate who understands the responsibilities of the position they seek, is willing to undergo public scrutiny, and has a genuine desire for public service — regardless of gender, she said.
