Jackie Speier’s election yesterday to the House of Representatives shows the importance of building a pipeline of qualified women working their way up the ladder of elected office. We are excited to extend warm congratulations to newly elected congressional incumbent Jackie Speier. Jackie won the California Congressional 12th District seat running away with 78% of the vote in the special election held yesterday. Her win shows the overwhelming importance of creating a sustainable pipeline of women candidates moving up the steps of the political heirarchy.

Jackie Speier began her career as an aid to Congressman Jack Ryan followed by her election to the San Mateo Board of Supervisors. She has served nearly two decades in the California legislature, starting as an Assemblymember and then as a State Senator. Her impressive record includes more than 300 pieces of legislation signed into law by both Democratic and Republican Governors. She has authored groundbreaking legislation in privacy and consumer protection, child welfare, and healthcare. Jackie has been very active in women’s health. Among her many accomplishments was a bill signed into law requiring health plans to cover the cost of contraception and osteoporosis screening while banning maternity surcharges. She also advocated a bill giving women the right to choose her own OB/GYN physician. Jackie Speier wrote legislation that created a “check-off” box on California State tax forms enabling taxpayers to direct money specifically to Breast Cancer Research.

Even with her success, the number of elected women still remains a faint shadow in comparison to the number of elected men. With a mere 71 woman elected to Congress out of a total 435 seats, men continue to hold an 83% majority. In California women legislators have dropped to just 28% of statewide elected state senate and assembly offices over the last 2 election cycles. Even though California is slightly above the current national 23% average, women electeds here have a long way to go before they reach a level of equality.

CALIFORNIA LIST believes that electing women matters. Women like Jackie Speier bring a different perspective to our political process as is demonstrated by her legislative achievements.

CALIFORNIA LIST continues to build a pipeline to the future. We remain dedicated to helping women get elected and reverse the decline in the number of elected women. Please visit our website, and meet our candidates.

Congratulations, Jackie!