Dear women's representation enthusiasts,

There were several key primaries this week with fascinating wins and losses for women candidates along with a number of landmark Supreme Court decisions that will dominate the headlines for weeks to come. In the midst of all this news I was very glad to read the latest report from Sarah Bryner from the Center for Responsive Politics who writes about the likely composition of the 117th Congress. While there have been a number of stories about the number of women running, Sarah's report examines the prospects for these women to actually win. It's so important to remember that the power of incumbency, the challenges of raising money, and our antiquated electoral system fortify the status quo:

Dear women's representation enthusiasts,

It's been an eventful week in the world of women's representation with some great wins for women candidates in primaries held this week - including RepresentWomen board member Jenifer Rajkumar who will most likely win her primary for the NY state assembly along with ReflectUS ally Jessica Gonzalez-Rojas who maintains her lead as absentee votes are counted according to this story by Ese Olumhense and Christine Chung in The City:

Jessica González-Rojas, former executive director of the National Latina Institute, heads the five-way race for the 34th Assembly District in Jackson Heights and Woodside, with 12-year incumbent Michael DenDekker trailing by 16 percentage points.

Dear women's representation enthusiasts,

The countdown to the Seneca Falls Revisited virtual conference celebrating the centennial of suffrage continues this week with blogs by Maura Reilly about the speakers - see below - and about Juneteenth which celebrates the official end of slavery in the United States. Maura writes in her blog this week:

On June 19th 1865, Major General Gordon Granger led Union soldiers into Galveston Texas and brought with him the news of the end of the Civil War and the enforcement of the Emancipation Proclamation. Two and a half years after President Abraham Lincoln delivered the Emancipation Proclamation and formally ended slavery in the United States, the legal end of slavery was finally upheld across the country. A year following Granger’s proclamation, the anniversary of what had become known as Juneteenth took place for the first time. The Juneteenth celebration which focused on the community of the formerly enslaved peoples in Texas continued to spread and grow over the following years.