Cee Maul, VRLA's Michigan state director, offers a clear-eyed but determined view on the immediate prospects for fair gender representation in their state as part of this analysis by The Bridge Michigan:

Women candidates in Michigan have made historic gains in recent election cycles, sweeping statewide offices and boosting numbers in the state Legislature. But with the Nov. 5 election fast approaching, advocates say their hopes for a women-majority Legislature may have to wait as they instead seek to hold ground this cycle. “Unless we can put more effort into intentionally recruiting women into all open seats … then it's going to be harder to see women's representation continue to rise in Michigan,” said Cee Maul, the Michigan director of Vote Run Lead Action, a nonprofit focused on recruiting and training progressive women candidates for office. ... Moving forward, Maul said the group’s main goals are to maximize opportunities for women candidates when state legislative seats come open, create sustainable pipelines of future women candidates and prioritize getting women elected in politically “safe” legislative districts so they’re less vulnerable to competitive challenges.

You'll also find insights from VRLA alumn Mai Xiong and valued partners including Vote Mama and CAWP.

Erin Vilardi, the CEO and founder of Vote Run Lead Action, told me. “Women are no longer quieting parts of themselves and quieting parts of their lives when they’re running for office, and that includes abortion care,” she said. “Because you have to be able to tell voters on this major national issue both your expertise on this and your lived reality. That makes you a really good person to go make laws about this issue.” Vote Run Lead Action trains women to run for office and stay safe while doing so. A core component of its program includes storytelling training. “If you’re not ready to tell that story, then you’re not ready to tell that story. That’s okay, don’t use it on the campaign trail,” Vilardi said. It's the vividness of these stories, she added, that can create collective change because the emotional resonance is potent. “For voters, you have a lot of noise to cut through.”

Women running for office across Oregon gathered in Hood River for VRLA's first training in the state, with workshops designed to help them campaign more effectively. In this article, Oregon Director Becca Phelps discusses the gender confidence gap and women's electability: "We know that males run for office at a higher rate than women. Males also run when they think they're qualified ... with women, it takes us a lot longer to say, 'we think we're ready.'" However, when a man and woman run for an open seat, she says the genders win at equal rates.

Stephanie Demmons, Vote Run Lead Action Director of Strategic Partnerships, joined Tonya Pendleton to discuss Vote Run Lead Action's free "Victory Series" workshops for women running for office and their campaign staff. These virtual workshops will teach winning strategies for 2024 elections.

VRLA Founder & CEO Erin Vilardi and Michigan State Director Cee Maul discuss Michigan's battleground races and the recent Democratic National Convention in Chicago (18:53) on the MIRS Monday podcast, produced by MIRSnews.com -- Michigan's longest-running state public policy podcast.

Read our "Dear Kamala" open letter, presented in the Madison (WI) Times, including a quote from Melissa Jackowski, our Regional Head, West.

In this report from Chicago during the DNC, Pakistan-based ARY News features interviews discussing Kamala Harris with Sabrina Shulman, Chief Political Officer, Erin Vilardi, CEO & Founder, plus other attendees at a recent reception co-sponsored with our partners at Represent Women. (Presented in English and Urdu.)

Thanks to our friends at Run For Something for including us in this Daily Beast article: "In the years since [2017], [Run For Something has] worked directly with more than 1,800 Millennial and Gen Z women across the United States, nearly half of whom are women of color. (Organizations like EMILY’s List, Emerge, Vote Run Lead and more also saw huge spikes in people expressing interest in running for office.)"