Source: Politics<\/p>\n
When Annie Andrews announced her longshot campaign for U.S. Senate last May, the Democrat from South Carolina pitched herself as a \u201cbusy mom.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cLindsey [Graham] is going to tell you I am radical, that I am crazy,\u201d Andrews said in her launch video<\/a>. \u201cBut here\u2019s the thing: I am literally a busy mom and a pediatrician who plays peek-a-boo with my patients, watches Bluey with my kids \u2026 and spends most of my free time shuttling them to dance, Tae Kwon Do and football.\u201d<\/p>\n Now, she is one of a record number of women who will serve in the next Congress. And as a 46-year-old mother of three school-aged children, she\u2019s among several Democratic women who flipped seats and governor\u2019s mansions this November with campaign messages centered on parenting and affordability.<\/p>\n It\u2019s a notable campaign shift from previous election cycles: This year, female candidates focused less on the historic nature of their bids, or culture war issues that have long fomented divisions over gender and electability. Instead, they zeroed in on an economic message emphasizing bread-and-butter concerns \u2014 like how rising costs were squeezing families, including theirs.<\/p>\n \u201cMoms understand kitchen table issues better than perhaps anyone,\u201d said Jessica Mackler, president of EMILY\u2019s List, the group that recruits and backs female Democratic candidates who support abortion rights. \u201cThey understand how to stretch a paycheck. They understand what it is like to walk through a grocery store and have to put something back on the shelf.\u201d<\/p>\n Senate, House and gubernatorial campaigns spent a combined $72 million on ads featuring the words \u201cmom\u201d or \u201cmother\u201d in 2026, according to AdImpact \u2014 a 50% increase from the $48 million spent in 2024 and double the spending on these kind of ads from 2022.<\/p>\n In many races, Democrats leaned on their experiences as parents to dismiss the kind of culture war attacks that have been effective for Republicans in recent years.<\/p>\n \u201cThey want to run an entire campaign saying that I\u2019m too woke \u2026 I plan to spend an entire campaign focused on the fact that working people are too broke,\u201d Democratic Texas Gov.-elect Gina Hinojosa said in one of her final TV ads<\/a>. \u201cMy pronouns are mom, Texan and soon-to-be governor.\u201d<\/p>\n Campaign messaging around gender and representation can be fraught: In 2016, Hillary Clinton\u2019s \u201cI\u2019m With Her\u201d campaign slogan fell short as she failed in her pledge to break the \u201chighest, hardest glass ceiling.\u201d In 2024, Kamala Harris\u2019 campaign was decidedly less overt<\/a> in its messaging about the barrier-breaking potential of her candidacy. But debates about gender seemed inescapable as Trump called her \u201cweak\u201d and then-Sen. JD Vance said the Democratic Party was run by \u201cchildless cat ladies.\u201d<\/p>\n This cycle was different.<\/p>\n In a 2026 environment driven by concerns about affordability and the cost of living, Democratic operatives said it was an easy decision for women and mothers in particular to lean on their home lives to connect with voters.<\/p>\n At least 159 women will serve in the 120th Congress, according to<\/a> the Center for American Women and Politics, with Democratic women outnumbering Republicans by roughly five-to-one. Many of the newly elected Democrats are younger moms.<\/p>\n Their victories, especially in battleground districts and states long seen as Republican strongholds, have emboldened Democratic groups dedicated to electing more women, who argue the candidates offer a blueprint for winning races going forward.<\/p>\n Veteran Democratic pollster Celinda Lake said her party\u2019s female candidates \u201creally got points for having the right priorities and being in touch with real people’s lives.”<\/p>\n “It used to be that women with young children just didn’t run, and we were electing all these women who had grown children or no children, and then we were electing women with young children, but they were hiding them, if you will,\u201d Lake said. \u201cNow [candidates] were bringing them out as major credentialers, and that has been changing over time.”<\/p>\n Winning Democratic candidates told POLITICO they did not hesitate to talk about their families and personal experiences on the trail.<\/p>\n \u201cI didn\u2019t need anyone giving me talking points on how expensive groceries are,\u201d said Representative-elect Teresa Benitez-Thompson, who won a heavily Republican House district in northern Nevada. \u201cI don\u2019t need anyone telling me how expensive gas is because I am filling up my tank \u2026 running kids all around town.\u201d<\/p>\n JoAnna Mendoza, a single mom who flipped a swing district in the Tucson, Arizona, suburbs \u2013 said she spent the night before the election in the emergency room with her 10-year-old son.<\/p>\n \u201cThat is what parents face. That is what moms go through. Their kids are sick, they have to take time off of work, or they have to leave work,\u201d Mendoza said. \u201cIt is important for people to see themselves in their elected leaders.\u201d<\/p>\n Uncomfortable questions surrounding gender and electability nevertheless persist in the run-up to the next presidential election. Some in the Democratic Party at least privately question<\/a> whether they should nominate another woman at the top of the ticket in 2028.<\/p>\n \u201cMy message to people who would say that is: cut it out,\u201d said Mackler. \u201cThis election clearly demonstrates that women are the drivers of Democrats’ path to power, and we should embrace their leadership at all levels of the ballot.\u201d<\/p>\n Lake, the Democratic pollster, said the surge in female Democratic victors showed how fed up voters are with the status quo, calling it a \u201cHail Mary for change.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt is so bad, it is so failed, we’re going to elect these women who will hold people accountable,\u201d she said, adding that voters, particularly women, \u201cwere really upset with how out of touch the older white men seemed with their families’ lives\u201d after a decade of Trump and Joe Biden running the country.<\/p>\n Democratic candidates do not have a monopoly on talking about family life. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the Republican governor of Arkansas, sailed to reelection last week with a campaign that highlighted her three children and efforts to cut grocery taxes and bring down the cost of living for other families. Messages around motherhood also featured prominently at the Republican National Committee\u2019s midterm convention in Dallas, Texas, earlier this year.<\/p>\n The messaging is part of a broader shift in the public conversation, said Abby McCloskey, a conservative policy analyst.<\/p>\n \u201cFor a long time, to be taken seriously in politics, your professional side went first and your personal side went far after, and that was especially the case for women,\u201d she said. \u201cI think there’s been broader cultural shifts that, and probably in a desire for authenticity and connection, why that is no longer necessarily the case.\u201dDemocratic campaign veterans said the renewed focus on motherhood gave their candidates an edge as they try to counter swing voters\u2019 deep-seated biases against female candidates.<\/p>\n One Democratic pollster, granted anonymity to speak candidly about voters\u2019 biases, said voters still have \u201cbad reactions\u201d to women running for office who are perceived as \u201ccold.\u201d Talking about motherhood and family life, the pollster said, allowed candidates to come across as warm while pushing back against the idea that their candidates are too radical or left-wing.<\/p>\n \u201cIn some of these places where you have to win over a bunch of conservative folks, the candidate can come across as just a regular mom,\u201d the pollster said. \u201cNot a scary, left, woke lady.\u201d<\/p>\n The beginning of Jocelyn Benson\u2019s campaign launch video<\/a> showed the Democrat hugging her son in their family\u2019s kitchen. Now Michigan\u2019s Democratic governor-elect, Benson told POLITICO she was \u201cvery intentional\u201d about inviting kids to join her on stage during her celebration on Election Night.<\/p>\n \u201cI think leaders in this moment, and I think parents, moms in particular, recognize this as an opportunity to show a different way of leading and of being a good person and a good citizen,\u201d she said.
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