An important and historic election draws scant voter attention

This article was published in The Journal Gazette. Mayor Tom Henry narrowly won re-election amid historically low voter turnout, while also noting the strong pool of women candidates in the race. It cites RepresentWomen’s 2022 Gender Parity Index. Read an excerpt below:

Given this country’s history of deploying legislation and sometimes violent measures to disenfranchise many from voting, it’s demoralizing to read that some portion of the electorate sees this duty as unnecessary.

Remembering that less than one-third of the eligible electorate voted in 2019, and considering what happened over the next four years: the ineptitude of Red River Waste Solutions, COVID-19, citizens and the Fort Wayne Police Department clashing during George Floyd protests, The American Rescue Plan delivering $50 million to the city, to name just a few – you would expect more Fort Wayne and Allen County voters to want to respond to the way the mayor and City Council handled those challenges.

Leadership matters. So does inclusivity, and the number of qualified women running for office was encouraging. Women make up 51.1% of this country’s citizens but fill only 28% of congressional seats, 31% of state legislative seats and about one-quarter of city mayorships, according to the Represent Women’s 2022 Gender Parity Index.

A May 2022 article from the University of Virginia Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy posited that this gap is due to a lack of encouragement for women to run, “even though women are just as likely as men to win their elections.”

The two dominant political parties should continue to recruit, encourage and back women to run for office.

Read the completed article here.