Rock the Mom Vote
Hey there freemoms and welcome to today’s show! I’m going to be really upfront here and tell you that I was never interested in politics until I became a mom. I’m embarrassed about it now but honestly, I found it all to be super boring. Mostly white, male candidates never spoke my language and it wasn’t until Barack Obama came on the scene that I even bothered to vote. Shameful, yes, but true.
Now that I have little people, I have become a whole heck of a lot more invested in what happens in this country, especially when it comes to healthcare, environmental protection, and women’s and family issues. I started thinking about why so many political candidates are white males and why so many issues that are important to me as a mother - paid parental leave, universal preschool, safety in schools - never seem to make it “up the hill”. As I started looking into it, I found out that prior to this past election, 7 percent of representatives in Congress and only 5.3 percent of state legislators in the United States are mothers with children under the age of 18. What’s being celebrated in the media is Congress’s “unprecedented” diversity with 28% of the makeup being women and 23% identifying as non-white - the most in history. Humph.
So, are we doing something wrong here or are the increases in numbers actually encouraging? How can we help more women and mothers get into the political spectrum so we have a fighting chance at actually getting what we need for our families? Let’s find out.
My guest today is Liuba Grechen Shirley, Founder and CEO of Vote Mama. Liuba ran for Congress in 2018 as a mom of two toddlers with no salary to pay for childcare. She quickly figured out why moms with young children don’t run for office and started the fight to change it. Liuba became the first woman in history to receive federal approval to spend Campaign Funds for childcare and she received the highest vote share of any Democrat to run against the incumbent in 25 years. After her campaign, she launched Vote Mama PAC, the nation’s first Political Action Committee dedicated to electing Democratic moms up and down the ballot. Since 2019, Vote Mama PAC has helped more than 400 pro-choice, Democratic moms run for office in 31 states. In 2020, Liuba launched the Vote Mama Foundation to break down the barriers that keep moms out of office and make it easier for moms to run and serve. Just recently, Liuba launched the Vote Mama Lobby, a political empowerment app that mobilizes fed-up moms to become an organized civic and voting bloc, volunteer for mama candidates, and lobby for truly family-friendly policies. It just so happens to be the virtual mom group of my dreams.