What does the evidence actually show about ranked choice voting, women’s representation, and democratic reform? This week’s Weekend Reading looks back at the research, real-world outcomes, and lessons shaping what comes next.
In recent weeks I have found myself asking the same question again and again: What does this moment require of us?
Yesterday, as part of Gender on the Ballot’s New Year Resolution Series, we shared ours, and I want to start here, because it sits at the heart of everything we’re building at RepresentWomen this year:
“In 2026, as we mark the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, RepresentWomen resolves to honor Abigail Adams’ call to ‘remember the ladies’ by designing a democracy that finally harnesses women’s full participation and power. Women make up half of the population, yet remain underrepresented in elected office — a gap that persists when electoral rules fail to fully reflect the diversity and collaboration voters want. This year, we commit to addressing the barriers women face by expanding ranked choice voting and supporting legislative rule changes that translate women’s leadership into lasting representation.”
That resolution isn’t symbolic. It’s personal, practical, and it’s already shaping how we show up this year; in the research we’re publishing, the partnerships we’re deepening, and the reforms we’re working to advance. It’s guiding how we think about power, not as something women are granted someday, but as something women are already exercising when the rules finally allow it.
One of the clearest ways we live out that commitment is by creating spaces where women’s expertise isn’t sidelined or qualified, but centered.
Six years ago, I started planning what would become our annual Democracy Solutions Summit after realizing that far too many conversations about democracy were happening without women. I was attending panels where the expertise was real, and the stakes were high, yet the voices were overwhelmingly male. I kept thinking about how different those conversations might look and how much stronger our democracy could be if women were consistently trusted to lead them. So we created one.
What began as a small but intentional space has grown into an annual gathering of women leaders, organizers, philanthropists, researchers, and reformers from across the country – and around the globe. Each year, the conversations have deepened, our Women Experts in Democracy Directory has grown, the urgency has sharpened, and the stakes have become clearer. This isn’t just a convening; it’s a place where women come together to share what’s working, challenge what isn’t, and imagine what democracy could look like if it truly reflected our communities.
Now, as we enter our fifth year, this work feels more urgent than ever. Tomorrow, as February begins and we mark Black History Month, I’m reminded that the fight for a more representative democracy has always been carried forward by women who refused to accept exclusion as inevitable. Women whose leadership shaped the systems we rely on today, even when those systems failed to fully recognize their power. Their voices — past and present — continue to guide this work.
That lineage is part of what we’ll be honoring at this year’s Democracy Solutions Summit. Our 2026 gathering is grounded in the theme Women’s Power by Design, and over three days, we’ll explore Where We’ve Been, Where We Are, and Where We’re Going. From the women who laid the groundwork for reform to those organizing and governing today to the leaders imagining what comes next, this Summit is about understanding how power has been built—and how it can be redesigned to finally reflect the people it serves.
On Day 1, as we reflect on Where We’ve Been, we’ll be joined by April Albright of Black Voters Matter. Her work, and the work of so many Black women organizers, is a powerful reminder that progress is never accidental. It is shaped by people who show up, who organize, and who insist on being counted, again and again.
This is why the Democracy Solutions Summit matters. Not as a moment, but as a practice. A place to listen, to learn, to challenge our assumptions, and to carry forward the lessons of those who came before us while equipping today’s leaders with the tools they need to shape what comes next.
This year’s resolution is not something we set aside after January. It is something we return to, build on, and live out through the work we do together to shape a more representative democracy where women hold an equal seat at the table.
Milestones: Condoleezza Rice was appointed Secretary of State, 2nd woman to serve in this position; Janet Yellen became the 1st woman Head of the Treasury Department (2021); Margaret Chase Smith became the 1st woman to run for the GOP presidential nomination (1964); Constance Baker Motley became the 1st African American woman to serve as a federal judge (1966); Violette Neatly Anderson is the 1st Black woman to practice law before the U.S. Supreme Court (1926); Elaine Chao became the first Asian/Pacific Islander female cabinet secretary (2001); Cornelia Olfaarts found not guilty of witchcraft in Salem witchcraft trials (1675); Rose McConnell Long became the 1st woman Senator from Louisiana (1936); 1st postage stamp to feature an African American woman is released depicting Harriet Tubman (1978).
Portrait of Harriet Tubman, painted by Melanie Humble.
Portrait of Condoleezza Rice, painted by Melanie Humble.
Birthdays for notable women: Lucinda Williams, singer; Bessie Coleman, African American pilot; Dianne Primavera, Lt. Governor of CO; Rebecca Sive, author of Vote Her In; Oprah Winfrey; Maggie Toulouse Oliver, Secretary of State of NM; Maya Harris; Courtney Emerson, co-founder of All In Together; Kerry Washington, actress; Rebecca Mears, Compliance Counsel, All Voting is Local; and Jennie Uleman, Associate Professor of Philosophy at Purchase College, SUNY.
New York Governor Kathy Hochul Finds Common Ground on Child Care
Kathy Hochul and Zohran Mamdani. Source: New York Times
Hats off to New York Governor Kathy Hochul for seeking common ground with New York City’s new governor, self-defined democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani. The New York Times featured a story on Zohran Mamdani and Kathy Hochul are Pals Right now. In sharp contrast to the ongoing feuds that her predecessor, Andrew Cuomo, had with local leaders, Hochul worked to find common ground with a mayor elected from a different wing of the Democratic party. From the story:
“Now, the moderate governor has entered into a pragmatic alliance with the progressive mayor, with both deciding that it represents the best chance of delivering their signature priorities. On Thursday, the two stood beside one another at a Y.M.C.A. in Flatbush, Brooklyn, to announce Ms. Hochul’s support for a plan to expand child care access for children ages 2 and up within four years in New York City, and set the state on a path to universal child care statewide.
Flanked by fleets of Democratic officials from across the ideological spectrum, Ms. Hochul beamed. “This is the day that everything changes,” she said, calling Mr. Mamdani an “extraordinary partner.”
Congressional Republicans Introduce Bill that Would Undermine Voting Rights and Ban Ranked Choice Voting
This is a breaking story: on January 29th, leading House Republicans introduced legislation that Democracy Docket called perhaps the greatest threat to voting rights our country has ever seen. Part of this bill would ban any use of ranked choice voting — and indeed any alternative voting system — for federal elections, which would overturn adoptions in states like Alaska, Maine and Washington, D.C. Stephen Richer, recently the Republican election clerk of Arizona’s largest county wrote for Cato Institute “MEGA” Bill Supersizes the Federal Government’s Role in Election Administration about how the bill gets into issues that should be left to the states.
Democracy Docket issued an analysis, “New GOP anti-voting bill may be the most dangerous attack on voting rights ever,” that included: “Republicans in Congress have unveiled a new bill that would impose the most extreme voting restrictions ever proposed at the federal level. The new bill goes far beyond even the SAVE Act, which the House passed last year and which one historian called “the most extraordinary attack on voting rights in American history.”
FairVote’s Meredith Sumpter issued a statement that included:
“Republicans in the U.S. House have introduced a major new elections bill that is full of unfunded, unworkable, and anti-voter mandates. Among other things, the bill would prohibit ranked choice voting in federal general elections – even though it’s already used in some form in several states.
“This raises fundamental questions. Why sabotage a party-neutral reform that works for voters? Why would Washington D.C. override the American people who’ve chosen ranked choice voting for their elections? Why are politicians in D.C. more focused on trying to control elections than actually competing for votes? 9 out of 10 Americans say our Congress is not working or listening to them. Yet, these members want to ban the reform that could get our elected representatives back to work for voters. The only path to a strong, functioning republic is to respect voters and empower our elected leaders to work for them.”
RepresentWomen for years has worked with women’s and electoral reform groups to showcase the positive impact of RCV for women, including playing a key role in electing Maine’s first woman governor, Alaska’s first Native Alaskan woman to Congress, and women to a majority of seats on city councils elected by RCV. It is deeply troubling that Republicans want to shut down our states' advancement of this reform. As I wrote on Ranked Choice Voting Day earlier this month:
"Building a thriving democracy in the United States requires strategies that address the root causes of the imbalance of power. That power imbalance cannot be addressed by trying to “win” the next election cycle for “our” side. Adopting better voting systems, campaign finance rules, and election processes are necessary ingredients to give us all real power to elect the candidates who represent us and the ability to hold them accountable.”
Eleanor Holmes Norton Stepping Down as DC Embraces Ranked Choice Voting
Eleanor Holmes Norton. Source: PBS News.
Washington D.C.’s legendary delegate to Congress, Eleanor Holmes Norton, will not run for re-election this year after 35 years in office. From PBS News:
“An institution in Washington politics for decades, Norton is the oldest member in the House. She was a personal friend to civil rights icons such as Medgar Evers and a contemporary of other activists turned congressional stalwarts, including Rep. Jim Clyburn, D-S.C, and the late Reps. John Conyers, D-Mich., and John Lewis, D-Ga….
As the district's delegate, Norton does not have a formal vote in the House. But she has found other ways to advocate for the city's interests. Called the "Warrior on the Hill" by her supporters, Norton was a staunch advocate for D.C. statehood and for the labor rights of the federal workers who called Washington and its surrounding region home.
She also secured bipartisan wins for district residents. Norton was the driving force behind the passage of a law that allows them to attend any public college or university in the country at in-state tuition rates or be eligible to attend any private university with up to a $2,500 annual grant. In the 1990s, Norton played a key role in ending the city's financial crisis by brokering a deal to transfer billions of dollars in unfunded pension liabilities to the federal government in exchange for changes to the district's budget. She twice played a leading role in House passage of a D.C. statehood bill.”
After a landslide ballot measure won with 73% of the vote, backed by Grow Democracy DC, Washington, D.C., will introduce ranked choice voting to its primary and general elections this year. With a crowded race for delegates and additional open seats for mayor and city council, this year will provide a terrific opportunity to showcase the incentives RCV creates for campaigns, leading to greater civility, voter engagement, and consensus-building. RepresentWomen's news release in December explained the value of RCV in such elections, including:
“Ranked choice voting is tested and proven. Numerous cities and states across the country have implemented ranked choice voting successfully, a trend well-documented by FairVote in its national tracking of ranked choice voting’s growth and performance. These communities have shown that there is a clear playbook for strong voter education and effective election administration, and voters consistently report finding ranked choice voting simple and easy to understand once they use it. Importantly, ranked choice voting elections have produced more diverse candidate fields and more representative outcomes, especially for women and communities of color — benefits that align with D.C.’s longstanding commitment to access and inclusion.”
Latinas for Trump Co-Founder Warns Fellow Republicans on Immigration
Florida state senator Ileana Garcia. Source: New York Times.
I join most Americans in reacting in horror to the heavy-handed tactics pursued by the Trump administration’s Department of Homeland Security in Minneapolis and other Minnesota cities. Two American citizens have been killed by federal immigration officers with ICE and the Border Patrol, with appalling and now-discredited efforts to blame the victims for their deaths. While leading administration figures like JD Vance and Stephen Miller have led in such attacks on the victims, one particularly reprehensible response to the murder of Alex Pretti came on Facebook from Florida Congressman Randy Fine: “An armed seditionist attacked federal law enforcement today as they were rounding up foreign invaders in Minneapolis. The insurrection was put down. Well done. I stand with ICE as they fight these foreign invaders and their treasonous allies. “
Republican state senator Ileana Garcia, a Coral Gables resident who co-founded Latinas for Trump, sees it differently. As reported in the New York Times, Garcia is concerned about the overt racial profiling and indiscriminate aggression against citizens, legal immigrants, and undocumented people alike. The Times story begins:
“The Trump administration’s immigration crackdown over the last year has gone from uncomfortable to untenable for Ileana Garcia, a Republican state senator in Florida.
A Transportation Security Administration officer at the Tallahassee airport overheard her speaking Spanish and asked whether Ms. Garcia, who was born in Miami, was an American citizen. She worried for the first time that Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents might stop her son, a young adult, because he looks Hispanic. Constituents have asked her for help finding immigrant relatives arrested by ICE.
Ms. Garcia, 56, has had enough. The Republican Party is in trouble, she said in an interview, predicting that it will lose this year’s midterm elections if the White House does not soon reconsider its harsh immigration enforcement tactics.
“We should not be afraid as a party to speak up, to course correct,” she said. That was before Saturday, when Border Patrol agents shot and killed Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old I.C.U. nurse who was protesting in Minneapolis, and federal officials sought to portray him as a “domestic terrorist.” Ms. Garcia said she was “dumbfounded.”
Trump’s So-Called “Board of Peace”: A Photo Worth 1000 Words
Donald Trump introduces the “Board of Peace. Source: The Guardian
The Guardian profiles Donald Trump’s feckless attempt to create an alternative to the United Nations in its editorial “The Guardian view on Trump’s Board of Peace: an international body in service to one man’s ego.” It writes:
“The charter of the board, formally launched in Davos on Thursday, suggests that this is less America First than Trump Always. It is not “the US president” but Mr Trump himself who is named as chair, for as long as he wishes. He can pick his successor, decide the agenda and axe whomever he chooses – even if they have coughed up the $1bn demanded for permanent membership. It is the institutional expression of his belief that he is bound not by law but “my own morality, my own mind”.
CNN’s coverage lists the nations – limited to autocrats and populist allies of Trump, with Hungary, led by Viktor Orban, the only Western European nation to attend. Only a single leader is a woman – Vjosa Osmani of Kosovo,
As a corrective, a bracing but important speech was given by Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney at Davos about the rupture in the international order, meaning that countries like Canada must disengage from any special relationship with the United States and forge new trade and political alliances.
In the same spirit, the New York Times included the chart below, recently published as "Trump and His Inner Circle Weave a Web of Power, Policy, and Profits." Of the 27 people lifted up in photos, only three are women – his daughters Tiffany Trump and Ivanka Trump, and his wife, Melania Trump.
Japan’s First Woman Prime Minister Tests Her Popularity with Snap Election
Sanae Takaichi on the campaign trail. Source: Reuters
Many parliamentary democracies do not have fixed legislative terms, which means that new elections can be scheduled and held quickly. Sanae Takaichi, Japan's first-ever woman prime minister, has gained popularity since assuming office late last year. She recently dissolved parliament and called a snap election. Here’s more on the story from Reuters:
“Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi's Liberal Democratic Party is likely to increase seats and gain a majority in the lower house in a general election on February 8, a preliminary survey by the Nikkei newspaper showed on Thursday. Takaichi called the snap general election to seek a mandate to gear up her expansionary fiscal policy, a move that triggered a spike in bond yields on market concerns Japan may be forced to issue additional debt.
While still early in the race, the LDP is gaining momentum and likely to see its seats exceed the 233 majority of 465 up for grabs in the lower house, up from 198 seats it holds before the election, the Nikkei said. The LDP currently forms a ruling coalition with the Japan Innovation Party, or Ishin, which together narrowly hold a majority in the powerful lower house. It is a minority in the upper house.”
Takaichi is not an American-style feminist, reports the New York Times,
“Her supporters say that she embraces a different type of feminism, one that focuses on concerns about women’s safety and health. She has endorsed, for example, an effort to build more bathrooms for women in Parliament.
Waka Ikeda, a commentator and researcher, wrote this month in The Japan Times newspaper that Ms. Takaichi was pushing a version of conservative feminism that was rooted in the idea of working within existing structures, rather than “revolutionary transformation.”
“This isn’t anti-feminist,” she wrote. “It’s a different feminist tradition, one that resonates with Japan’s silent majority…
She warned about the “glass cliff,” a phenomenon in which women are appointed to steer organizations through crisis, only to be set up for failure. “It leads to the prejudice that women are not suited to being leaders,” she said. “Let’s work hard together and produce results in order to eradicate such words.”
That's all for this week, my friends,
Cynthia
Executive Director, RepresentWomen
P.S. — I was honored to spend time this week with members of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. from the DC, Maryland, and Virginia chapters, speaking on a webinar about the history of ranked choice voting and answering questions alongside election administrators and advocates. Nearly 175 sorority members joined the conversation, bringing thoughtfulness, curiosity, and care to a discussion about how our election systems work, and how they can work better for voters. Spaces like these remind me that meaningful change is built through education, dialogue, and relationships, and I’m deeply grateful for the opportunity to be part of that exchange.
My participation in the Delta Sigma Theta Sorority webinar came on the heels of our own ranked choice voting webinar, which RepresentWomen hosted last week in celebration of RCV Day. RepresentWomen’s Communications Lead, Alana Persson, moderated this panel and was joined by our guests — Anna Kellar of Rank the Vote, Elise Orlick of FairVote Washington, Tamara Allen of UpVote Virginia, Perry Radford of NM Voters First, and Tamaya Dennard of RepresentWomen. The conversation was thoughtful, energizing, and deeply rooted in what it takes to build durable reform. Our entire team left inspired by the insight, care, and passion each panelist brought to the discussion.
If you missed the webinar, you can watch it on YouTube here.