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John — I have a story to share with you.
It’s a bit of a long one, so if you’d rather support my campaign and Democratic Values with a donation of any amount right now, I’d appreciate it.
One day in October of 2018, I knocked on a door in a winding cul-de-sac in Troy.
The woman who answered was around my mom’s age. I introduced myself and I told her that I was running to be her State Senator. I handed her my literature, and she turned it over a few times.
“Are you married?” she asked.
Yes, I told her. Then I pointed to the picture of my husband, Ray, and our dog in the literature.
“Do you have any kids?”
No — we had just been married the year before at Eastern Market, right before I filed to run for office.
“Well, are you going to have kids? And when? And how many?”
She told me that her own daughter was pregnant and that it would be her first grandchild. Then she stopped me.
“I’m sorry,” she said. “I need to know that my senator is in the office representing me the whole time. I can’t vote for you. This isn’t a job for a mom.”
I thought about her own daughter and how she needed an advocate, how she deserved a voice. Of course, women could do this. Of course, moms should do this.
But I want to admit something to you, John — this can get draining. You see, a few weeks ago was the dreaded gap between the last week of summer school and the first week of regular school for my daughter’s pre-school.
Somehow, my husband and I timed it completely wrong. In trying to balance everything, we completely screwed up the dates. We found ourselves scrambling that week for child care, for someone to be with our brilliant and endlessly energetic four-year-old, so that we could maintain two full-time jobs on top of a statewide U.S. Senate campaign.
So many women know that gap.
I found myself worried about telling my campaign team, about stressing them out, thinking that they wished they worked for any other kind of candidate. One without a kid. One who doesn’t have to worry about who’s watching her young child, knowing how hard they worked to arrange a full schedule of fundraisers, meet and greets, union training facility tours, and events.
That week, I found myself deeply understanding why so many women just quit.
John, we do this work to write a New American Dream and to ensure that it’s not just some relic of the past.
We do all of this work knowing that it will mean time away from our families. There will be weeks when you find yourself struggling to find childcare, where you want to tear your hair out. Weeks when you think so much about how much easier it would be to just quit.
But you don’t. Because we matter. Our voices matter. Because you know that you can make it easier for the next woman who comes after you. And because you know that there are so many people who know what you are going through and who have your back.
As your Senator, I promise to always have yours. If you’re able, please consider splitting a contribution today between my campaign and Democratic Values so we can keep writing a New American Dream together.
If you've saved payment information with ActBlue Express, your donation split between Mallory McMorrow and Democratic Values will go through immediately:
Thank you,
Mallory
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