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niyad

(112,424 posts)
Thu Aug 25, 2016, 01:37 PM Aug 2016

Women poised to lead Democratic return to power in the Senate

Women poised to lead Democratic return to power in the Senate

Five of the seven races where Democrats could take seats from the GOP are being run by women, from Tammy Duckworth in Illinois to Ann Kirkpatrick in Arizona

http://media.philly.com/images/800*533/072716_mcginty_1200.jpg
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f3/Tammy_Duckworth,_official_portrait,_113th_Congress.jpg
Female candidates are leading the push for a Democratic return to power in the Senate as Donald Trump’s sagging poll numbers leave the Republican majority under extreme pressure. Tammy Duckworth shows her strength in Senate fight: 'These legs don’t buckle'


Even before Trump became the Republican presidential nominee, Democrats had a decent chance of picking up enough seats to wrest the Senate majority from Mitch McConnell’s hands: they need only four seats if there’s a Democratic president, or five if there’s not. And in five of the seven states where Democrats have a strong chance of picking up seats, the candidates are women.

There is broad agreement on the states where Democrats have the best chance of picking up seats: Illinois, Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Arizona, Wisconsin and Ohio. In all but the last two, the Democratic candidate is a woman. And in Nevada, minority leader Harry Reid is retiring and Democrat Catherine Cortez Masto is neck-and-neck with her Republican opponent, Joe Heck, in the latest poll.

The woman mostly likely heading to the Senate after November’s election is Illinois congresswoman Tammy Duckworth. Few polls have actually been done in the state that elected Barack Obama president twice and the latest conservative poll shows Duckworth and the incumbent senator, Mark Kirk, in a statistical tie. Kirk’s been forced to denounce his initial endorsement of Trump – but Duckworth thinks that the growing support for Hillary Clinton in the state can work in her favor. “In terms of my gender … I don’t think it’s made as big of a difference” she said, “but it does allow me to connect more with so many more of the female volunteers who are turning up for Hillary, and are there to connect with me.” “To be on the same ballot with her?” she asked rhetorically. “It’s so historic.”

Stephanie Schriock, the president of Emily’s List, which promotes and funds pro-choice Democratic candidates – including the six women who could help turn the Senate blue again – noted that the number of women up for election to Senate seats is no accident of history. “We’ve been working for 31 years to elect women,” she said, noting that when Emily’s List was started, there were only two female senators, and both were Republicans. “We’re planting seeds all the time to build that pipeline of great women to run for office,” she added, pointing out that the organization backed Duckworth in her unsuccessful House campaign in 2006 and Cortez Masto in her successful bid for state attorney general before supporting them in their Senate races.

. . . .

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/aug/25/senate-women-democrats-majority-power

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Women poised to lead Democratic return to power in the Senate (Original Post) niyad Aug 2016 OP
K & R SunSeeker Aug 2016 #1
. . . niyad Aug 2016 #2
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