Georgia voters returned to the polls for a primary runoff election yesterday, following up on three races from the May primary in which no candidate garnered a majority of the vote.

Yesterday’s most high-profile contest was a two-man race for Republican gubernatorial nominee. Brian Kemp, Georgia Secretary of State, beat opponent Casey Cagle by nearly 20 points. In November, Kemp will face Democrat Stacey Abrams, a state representative whose candidacy, if successful, would be historic:  Abrams would become Georgia’s first Black governor, Georgia’s first woman governor, and the first Black woman governor anywhere, ever.

Beth Harwell has shattered several glass ceilings in her lifetime. In 2001, she became the first-ever chairwoman of the Tennessee Republican Party. In 2011, after serving in the Tennessee House of Representatives for more than two decades, her colleagues chose her to become the first female speaker of the Tennessee House of Representatives. On Thursday, August 2nd, she’s running in the Republican gubernatorial primary to become the first female major party nominee and the first female governor of Tennessee.

Every generation has had to wrestle with questions of identity, power and equality - within the family, within religious practice & belief, and within decision making bodies and society at large. Today, however, marks 170 years since the launch of the 'modern' movement for women's rights that brought Quaker, republican, abolitionists and others together to birth a campaign for suffrage and equality. I myself am descended from a long line of Quaker agitators and champions of equality and, lucky for me, I married a man who claims the same heritage. Our generation's call for equality & representation is enriched by those who toiled on those hot summer days in Seneca Falls, NY, 170 years ago.

Photo: Bettmann via Getty Images

The women's’ rights movement in the United States was launched 170 ago at the first American woman’s rights convention, a prominent two-day event at the Wesleyan Chapel in Seneca Falls, N.Y. The convention’s organizers were all Quakers, with the exception of Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Stanton had met another main organizer, Lucretia Mott, at the 1840 World Anti-Slavery Convention, where they were told that women were not allowed to speak or vote and had to sit in a roped-off gallery.

Yesterday’s primary runoff elections in Alabama decided the closely-watched Republican nomination for AL-2, as well as a handful of statewide executive offices and state legislature seats. Even though runoff elections are costly and inefficient, the vast majority of cities and states continue to rely on runoffs to determine the result of primaries in which no candidate garnered more than 50 percent of the vote.

Just 12.7 percent of registered Alabama voters cast a ballot yesterday, which is especially dismal considering how much time and money was spent on campaigning since the initial primary election on June 5.

Katherine Baird speaking at the Resilience Summit

Katherine Baird looks put together. She’s the minister of congressional, public and governmental affairs at the Canadian Embassy. She stands tall, shoulders back and eyes ahead. Last Thursday, she addressed a room of over fifty high-achieving young women: “I am failing right now,” she said.

The 2018 primaries have hit a bit of a lull this July. From April to June of this year, 31 states and the District of Columbia voted in primary elections to choose their candidates for the November midterm elections. The next statewide party primaries aren’t until the first week of August when Tennessee and Michigan cast their ballots.

#WomenToWatch is a series by RepresentWomen that documents rising women leaders and their stories.

Debra (Deb) Haaland may well become the first Native American congresswoman in United States history come November. This June, she defeated Damon Martinez to win the Democratic primary in the race for New Mexico’s 1st Congressional District. Right now, the district is represented by Michelle Lujan Grisham, who is running for governor and is currently New Mexico’s only woman in Congress. 

The RepresentWomen interns had the distinct pleasure of speaking with former state senator Mary Margaret Whipple last week, who served for many years in the Virginia Senate for the 31st district. Senator Whipple became the first woman to hold a leadership position in the Virginia General Assembly when she was elected Chairwoman of the Senate Democratic Caucus. Prior to serving in the General Assembly, she was on the Arlington School Board and the Arlington County Board. During her time in office, she was instrumental in passing environmental protection measures and was also active in housing and education reform efforts.