Will Nevada elect the US's first female-majority legislature?
Will Nevada elect the US's first female-majority legislature?
After winning record number of primary races, Nevada female candidates set their sights on making history on November 6.
A woman holds a sign encouraging voters during the Women's March rally in Las Vegas, Nevada [File: Steve Marcus/Reuters]
Patricia Ackerman never thought she'd run for office in the US. A successful business owner by the age of 21, an award-winning actress at the age of 30 and then an FBI agent sent on undercover missions to Russia, Ackerman said she never knew where she was going. "I always had my bags packed," she told Al Jazeera. But when Donald Trump was elected US president in 2016, the first-generation American, born to Ukrainian immigrants who both survived imprisonment by the Nazis, knew she had to run. "It was [because] of the 2016 presidential elections," she said. "I had no inclination to get into politics prior to it."
Less than a week before the midterm elections, Ackerman, a Democrat running for Nevada's State Assembly in the state's 39th district, now spends her days knocking on people's doors. If she, along with several other female hopefuls win, the state may make history, becoming the first in the country to have a female-majority legislature.
Patricia Ackerman, candidate for Nevada's State Assembly District 39 seat [Courtesy of Patricia Ackerman]
"For 70 years, this seat [in the 39th district] has not had a Democrat, let alone a woman," Ackerman told Al Jazeera. Vying to represent a conservative district, Ackerman faces an uphill battle against incumbent Jim Wheeler, who caused national outrage in 2013 when he said he would vote for slavery if that was what his constituents wanted.
But women in several other districts have a good shot at either obtaining or keeping their seat on November 6. According to a study by the Reno Gazette, women are favoured to control 27 seats - 19 in the Assembly and eight in the Senate - in the state's 63-seat legislature. They would still need to pick up five additional seats to obtain the majority but, the newspaper noted, there are several tight key races in both the state senate and assembly that could give women the upper hand.
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A woman holds up a sign during the Women's March rally in Las Vegas, Nevada [File: Steve Marcus/Reuters]
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/10/nevada-elect-female-majority-legislature-181031143630373.html
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