“Men as Allies” Event Celebrates the Power of Women’s Leadership

The Women Winning “Men as Allies” event on October 10, featured three guest speakers.

Tom Weber, husband of Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan, said: “Donald Trump, his judges, and his anti-choice supporters have told us that they would rather control every aspect of a woman’s life. Restricting reproductive freedom also restricts economic freedom, and that’s why it affects all of us.

“I am glad this election has included long-overdue conversations about masculinity. I’m grateful Governor Walz and Second Gentleman Emhoff are showing this country what it looks like for men to trust women, to root for them to succeed, rather than to feel threatened by their success — to lift up all leaders, regardless of gender, instead of tearing them down. So that I can look my stepdaughter in the eye and with a straight face tell her that we are not going back. I know there are dads and stepdads everywhere working like hell to make sure we win this election, so she doesn’t have fewer rights than her mom or her grandma did. And that there are organizations like Women Winning doing the work, to keep the dangerous weirdos at bay.”

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John Bessler, husband of U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar, pointed out that Women Winning was formed in 1982, when only 14 percent of Minnesota legislators were women. “So, you can see the power of this. Now the [state’s] Lieutenant Governor, Speaker of the House, and Senate Majority Leader are all women.”

Currently 52 percent of Minnesota’s Democratic legislators are women, as well as 20 percent of Republican state legislators, according to the Center for American Women and Politics. There are four states with two women U.S. Senators, including Minnesota’s Klobuchar and Tina Smith; Nevada, New Hampshire, and Washington are the others.

Bessler says Klobuchar visits all 87 counties in Minnesota every year, and is visiting states across the country to encourage people to vote and display their intention to vote with lawn signs and bumper stickers. “Lawn signs don’t vote, but they tell your neighbors that you’re going to vote. Have those conversations with people.”

He added, “Of course, reproductive rights are on the ballot this time. We know that Donald Trump brags about his role in overturning Roe vs. Wade, but we also know that Kamala Harris has told us she’s going to codify Roe vs. Wade into law. That’s really an important distinction for everybody to talk about. Amy actually kicked off the reproductive rights bus tour a few miles from [Trump’s home base] Mar a Lago in Florida. If you actually look at the Dobbs decision, they’re literally citing treatises written in Latin from the 13th century, well before women got the right to vote in 1920. Let’s be clear, Donald Trump would be much worse in a second term. We all can see this dissembling. I saw him comment [recently] about how he should really be nicer to women, but he just can’t help himself.”

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Saint Paul mayor Melvin Carter said, “I am really proud to be a Minnesotan right now,” referring to the Vikings, the Lynx, and Governor Tim Walz. He pointed out that his mother Toni Carter, became the first African American county commissioner in Minnesota in 2005, with the support of Women Winning; she retired from that position in December 2022.

“The fact that only four states have sent two women senators to the U.S. Senate tells you everything we need to know about why this organization is still necessary,” Carter said. “But the name of the organization isn’t Women Candidates Winning. It’s not just about Peggy winning. It’s not just about the Vice President winning. It’s not just about Toni Carter winning. This is about the women in our families, the women on our block, the women we work with, the [future] women we are raising in our homes, the women we adore, the women who raised us. I’m tired of hearing men say, ‘as a father, or husband, or a son, this is important to me.’ This is important as a member of humankind — that everyone gets to live with dignity, that everyone gets to make decisions about their health care, that everyone gets to live in the fullness of American democracy and the freedom that we celebrate as a country.”

Carter reminded people that in 2016 we thought the election of Hillary Clinton against Donald Trump was a sure thing. “We remember waking up the day after election day and feeling like we could have knocked on more door, dug a little deeper, because the outcome that we woke up to that morning was unacceptable. It’s important to me that we remember that. Because one thing history has shown is that when women win, they take all of us with them. … We’re getting to see that in Saint Paul right now, because we have seven city council members and all of them are pro-choice women.”

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