Record Number Of Women In The Nebraska Legislature And In Other States

From Nebraska Examiner:

By Aaron Sanderford and Jennifer Shutt

December 2, 2022

LINCOLN — Nebraska voters in November elected a record number of women to the Legislature, sending new faces to join the 14 women already serving and setting a new high of 18.

Women in 2023 will hold more than a third of Nebraska’s 49 seats for the first time — at 37% — with nine Republicans and nine Democrats serving in the officially nonpartisan body.

‘Incredibly exciting’

Republicans added three women: Christy Armendariz of Omaha; Jana Hughes of Seward and Teresa Ibach of Sumner. Democrats added two: Jane Raybould and Danielle Conrad, both of Lincoln.

State Sen. Julie Slama of Dunbar, a Republican who represents a largely rural district in southeast Nebraska, said she is glad to see the Legislature gaining new perspectives.

She said she is pleased that “conservative Republican women” are running and being elected to office.

Raybould, a former Lincoln City Councilwoman who will replace term-limited State Sen. Patty Pansing Brooks, said she spent years trying to help more Democratic women run for office, because they’re under-represented.

She said she is proud to be among them.

“It’s incredibly exciting to be serving with all these strong, amazing, smart, savvy women,” Raybould said. “It’s a little bit different perspective that we bring.”

National trend

All 18 Nebraskans are part of a national trend. Nationally, a record 32% of state lawmakers in 2023 will be women, according to the Center for American Women and Politics.

States will have at least 2,376 female lawmakers in 2023, including both women elected in 2022 and holdovers. That is an increase in the number of women writing state laws from the record set in 2022 of 2,307 women.

That number could still climb because 59 races nationally with women running remain too close to call.

Nationally, Democratic women hold more seats, with 1,560 members, while Republicans have 795. The remainder don’t belong to a major party or are registered as independents.

State Sen.-elect Jane Raybould, a Lincoln City Council member, is one of 18 women who will serve in the 2023 Nebraska Legislature. (Courtesy photo/City of Lincoln)

About a third of women in state legislatures are Republicans, but they have been gaining ground, according to the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University in New Jersey.

The numbers of women in statehouses is still far from reflective of their roughly half of the population, but the numbers are starting to reach parity in some states.

‘Positive results’

Colorado will join Nevada next year as the only two states that have at least half of their state legislatures made up of women, according to the center’s analysis of this year’s elections.

Women hold exactly half of the seats in the Arizona and New Hampshire Senate chambers.

“Nevada became the first state to reach this milestone following the 2018 elections. As of Election Day 2022, 58.7% of Nevada state legislators were women, and in 2023 Nevada’s legislature will be 60.3% women,” the center’s researchers wrote in a summary of state legislative election results.

“Colorado’s legislature will also be majority-women in 2023, with women holding 51% of state legislative seats.”

Nebraska’s 2023 legislative makeup certainly will be different from Conrad’s first go-round. She served from 2007 to 2015, then was term-limited out of office.

Conrad said it is exciting to see the trend continue, and she is optimistic about what’s ahead.

“As you see more and more women candidates from across the state and across the political spectrum step forward to make a positive difference, you are seeing positive results,” she said.

Nebraskans want accountability from their elected officials and government. They want to know whether their tax dollars are being well-spent, whether state agencies and local governments are responsive to the people and whether officials, programs and policies are working for the common good. The Nebraska Examiner is a nonprofit, independent news source committed to providing news, scoops and reports important to our state.