Progress and Pain in Politics

 

In 1984, as a delegate to the Democratic National Convention, tears rolled down my cheeks as Congresswoman Geraldine Ferraro accepted the nomination as our country’s vice president. I fervently believed a woman would serve as U.S. president and Minnesota governor in my lifetime.

Now at age 71, reality has set in. Neither may happen.

As a sexual assault survivor, I believed prevention of violence against women and children would be a priority across our nation long before now. Today, we have a convicted felon in the White House who has been found liable for sexual assault.

When I was a 30-year-old first-term senator at that convention, my reproductive rights appeared solidly protected by the U.S. Supreme Court. Not so for our grandchildren.

This didn’t happen overnight. The far right has been persistent and patient. They have built their conservative movement over several decades, dollar by dollar, election by election, from local school board to the presidency.

We can’t give up. I see our progress:

There are now 26 women in the US Senate (16D, 10R) and 125 in the U.S. House (94D, 31R) for a total of 151 women in the U.S. Congress. That nearly doubles the total of 82 women in Congress 20 years ago.

In Minnesota, 7 of 10 U.S. Congressional seats are held by women. Minnesota is one of four states with two female U.S. Senators.

The Minnesota legislature is now nearly 37 percent women (55D, 19R). Women make up most of the DFL majority caucus in the Minnesota Senate, with 18. When I started in the Senate, we had nine women total.

Today, three of four Minnesota caucus leaders are women. We’ve had four female House speakers (3D, 1R) and three female Senate majority leaders (2D, 1R).

The sobering takeaway is that there are two to three times more female Democratic lawmakers than there are Republican women. Only three Republican women currently serve in the Minnesota Senate. Is it a coincidence that this gap by party widened significantly after Roe v. Wade was overturned in 2022 by the U.S. Supreme Court?

Women are facing a future where our fundamental rights, safety, and security are at great risk. I thought women would swarm the polls to elect a woman president, especially with reproductive rights on the ballot. But according to the Center for American Women and Politics, gender differences in vote choice in the 2024 elections were remarkably similar to recent presidential elections.

Women are not monolithic voters, nor monolithic policymakers. But perhaps it can be a group of women working together over party lines to turn things around in our polarized communities.

The danger of the Trump administration’s aggressive actions to tear down the pillars and diversity of America is that there is no planning or true understanding of the consequences. It is only a matter of time until there is a breakdown — a crisis of health, economy, or natural disaster.

However, I’ve learned that for every breakdown there is a breakthrough.

I believe after the breakdown, it can be women leaders of both parties to lead the way through. I still believe we can create a society led by truth, not lies or conspiracy theories.

All of us can help make that happen with our votes. It is the power of one, plus one, plus one.

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Ember Reichgott Junge served as Minnesota state senator from 1983 to 2000 — first elected at age 29 — and was a columnist for Minnesota Women’s Press until 2005. She is a nonprofit attorney and consultant, broadcast media analyst, and author of the forthcoming book The Dance of Resilience: How Partner Dance Transforms Life (January 2026).