Northwest Arkansas gained four state House seats in the redrawing of legislative district boundaries last year. Women are the only major-party candidates in three of those new seats.
The Democratic and Republican women in those three districts do have male opposition. The state Libertarian Party seeks to break the major-party duopoly in those and other races. There are currently no third-party members or independents in the House.
Women running for the Legislature from Northwest Arkansas isn't new. For instance, Sen. Cecile Bledsoe of Rogers is the longest-serving lawmaker in the state Senate. Former state representative and then senator Sue Madison, D-Fayetteville, preceded her.
But a woman making her first bid for the Legislature without a male opponent from either the Democratic nor Republican party was rare before this year, election records show.
Six women who live in either Benton or Washington county serve in the state House. All six defeated at least one major-party male opponent, either in their party's primary or in the general election, when they first ran for office, election records show.
This year, Republican DeAnna Hodges and Democrat Diana Gonzales Worthen were nominated without opposition in their race for House District 9 in Springdale, a new district. They are both running against third-party Libertarian Steve Stilling.
Republican Mindy McAlindon and Democrat Kate Schaffer are running to see who will represent Bentonville in the state House. They compete for the new District 10 seat. Neither had primary opposition.
Republican Kendra Moore of Lincoln won her Republican primary for House District 23 against two male opponents. No Democrat is running in that western Washington County district. She faces Libertarian Ryan Hanson. That is the region's third new district. The remaining new House seat is District 14 in Benton County, where two men are competing, Democrat Brian Eaton and Republican Grant Hodges, both of Centerton.
Underrepresented
Arkansas as a whole has more than twice as many women running for state office as it did in 2000, according to a count by the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University, cited by Janine Parry, professor of political science at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville. Those figures show 54 women running in Arkansas compared to 24 in 2000. Those figures also show a increase in women running every year except 2016.
"We also know that high profile women in office -- specifically, governor and U.S. Senate -- measurably lift the number of runs made by other women," Parry said. "We've now had enough experience in enough states -- Nevada is the first state legislature to have a female majority -- to measure long-time hypotheses like that one. And it holds up. 'If you see it, you can be it' is an adage supported by actual data.
"Finally, I always think it's worth noting that while women's legislative presence nationwide is at a record high – 31% as compared with 28% of Congress and 18% of governors – it's still 20 points short of women's portion of the population," Parry said.
"No other major demographic group remains as grossly underrepresented as women. So there are many miles to go on that score."
Women feeling underrepresented is an important factor in the trend of more women candidates, said state Democratic Party Chairman Grant Tennille. Arkansas has 24 women in the 100-member state House and seven women in the 35-member Senate. This puts Arkansas 41st among the 50 states in percentage of women in the Legislature, according to the Rutgers center's figures.
"They have been frustrated in the lack of investment in education by the Legislature," Tennille said. "I'll put it this way: Our women candidates didn't need to be told to jump on the teacher pay raise issue."
Leaders of both major parties in Arkansas said there no special effort to recruit women candidates was needed this year, either in general or in Northwest Arkansas.
"We don't recruit candidates. We don't have to," said Sarah Jo Reynolds, executive director of the Republican Party of Arkansas.
"We didn't have to go chasing any of them. They showed up," Tennille agreed.
Reynolds said Northwest Arkansas was a good environment for fostering women candidates.
"There's a lot of strong businesswomen in Northwest Arkansas."
That adds to the region's pool of women leaders willing to run, she said. Northwest Arkansas also has a longer history of being Republican than other regions, she said. Many of the state's most active and longest supporters of the party are women who come from there, she said. Those factors combined create a lot of qualified women candidates for the Republicans in the region, she said.
More women running is a statewide trend, but the women of Northwest Arkansas have the advantage of more seats to run for with no sitting legislator on the ballot, Tennille said. The state redraws legislative boundaries after each U.S. census, which take place every 10 years. Northwest Arkansas gained those four House seats because the population grew here while declining in most other regions.
Reynolds made the same point in her interview.
"I think a lot of them were waiting for redistricting this time so they could run for those seats," Reynolds said of female candidates in the Northwest.
The candidates
Nominee Hodges looks forward to working with the state's first woman governor and lieutenant governor if elected in her District 9 race, she said. The Republican nominee for governor is Sarah Huckabee Sanders and the party's lieutenant governor's candidate is state Attorney General Leslie Rutledge. Chris Jones is running as the Democratic nominee for governor and the Democratic lieutenant governor's nominee is Kelly Krout.
"The decision to run was individual for me," Hodges said. "I thought it was the right time for me to run. But I love to see all of these strong women running. I think it's going to encourage the next generation."
Worthen, Hodges' Democratic opponent, said she's an educator and so are many other Northwest Arkansas woman candidates, including state Senate District 31 nominee Lisa Parks and House District 19 nominee Paula Irwin. It's no coincidence women educators are running given the decisions by the Legislature on issues such as better state support of education. Women who aren't educators also are generally more closely involved in their children's education, she said.
"Women can speak to those issues a little more readily," she said.
District 13 rivals McAlindon and Schaffer both said they believe women are motivated to run because of concerns about their families.
"Women lead in education and in the family budget," McAlindon said.
They're concerned with issues such as school choice and health care because they tend to play a bigger role in those decisions, she said.
"They bring a perspective that will help find the best solution,"she said.
Schaffer made similar points in a separate interview. Women care for the children and then, later in life, tend to be the ones who care for elderly parents.
While they agree on why more women are running, the two disagree on the solutions they would propose if elected, Schaffer said.
"I'm glad Mindy is running," Schaffer said. "Our views are so different. It shows women's ideas are not monolithic."
Moore in District 23 agreed with Reynolds' assertion that Northwest Arkansas is a good place for women who want to take a leadership role.
"Throughout our region, women are leaders in industry, business, churches and nonprofits, so it's no surprise that women are leading in our state government," she said.
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NoneNWA women in the Legislature
Senate
Cecile Bledsoe, R-Rogers. Didn’t seek reelection
House
Nicole Clowney, D-Faytteville. Unopposed for reelection
Denise Garner, D-Fayetteville. Unopposed for reelection
Megan Godfrey, D-Springdale. Didn’t seek reelection
Delia Haak, R-Gentry. Unopposed for reelection
Robin Lundstrum, R-Elm Springs. Opposed by Democrat Monique Jones of Fayetteville
Gayla McKenzie, R-Gravette. Unsuccessfully ran for Senate
Source: NWA Democrat-Gazette