The fact that the South has become increasingly Republican over the last decade is well known. The fact that Democratic women may be helping to turn the tide back the other way is not.
Alexandra Starr has a great item in this month’s issue of The Atlantic about “the Democrats’ salvation in the South,” whom Starr calls the “Steel Magnolias.”
The star of the article is clearly South Carolina’s Inez Tenenbaum.
A year ago few political experts would have guessed that a woman or a Democrat stood a solid chance of becoming South Carolina’s next senator. The fact that Inez Tenenbaum, who is running competitively for the state’s open Senate seat, is both makes her a very unusual politician. It’s not just her party and her sex that set her apart: at just over five feet tall, Tenenbaum seems to disappear when she wades into a crowd. She gives this, like many other potential negatives, a positive spin: at a recent barbecue fundraiser in Seneca she touted herself as “the little woman with big ideas.”
This struck a chord with the small-town crowd, whose enthusiasm grew as Tenenbaum recited her qualifications — not just as the state’s twice-elected superintendent of education but also as a former homecoming queen. By the time she had exhorted her audience to recruit GRITs — “Good Republicans for Inez Tenenbaum” — most appeared eager to help. “She’d be such a gracious presence in the Senate,” Libby Woodell, a retired social worker, said. “There doesn’t seem to be a mean bone in her body, but she’s tough.”
To be sure, Tenenbaum’s in a tough race in a Republican state against conservative Rep. Jim DeMint (R). That said, Starr’s article raises a great point: there’s a growing group of popular, centrist women Democrats in Dixie who are doing what Dem men in those same states aren’t — winning.
* In Louisiana, conservative voters have backed two Dem women for two of the top statewide offices — Gov. Kathleen Blanco and Sen. Mary Landrieu.
* In Arkansas, Sen. Blanche Lincoln won easily in 1998 and faces little GOP opposition in her race for re-election this year.
* In Alabama, Lucy Baxley was elected as a Dem lieutenant governor in a state where Dems appear to be an endangered species.
* Even among candidates seeking Senate seats for the first time this year, Education Secretary Betty Castor is the leading Dem Senate candidate in Florida and Rep. Denise Majette won the Dem nomination in Georgia, defeating a better funded man in the primary.
So, why are these Dem women excelling? Starr offers several compelling explanations.
First, candidates like Tenenbaum are peeling off support from conservative women who tend to vote Republican.
In a region where the white male vote is staunchly Republican, the best chance for a Democrat to win statewide election is by making substantial inroads among centrist and Republican-leaning women. “There are more independents among white women,” says Merle Black, a political scientist at Emory University, “and women candidates seem to have an easier time reaching out to them than some of the male candidates.” If a woman can draw on female solidarity and still attract minority votes in sufficient number, she can eke out a victory.
Second, candidates with family experience as a mother have an advantage that voters can relate to.
It isn’t all Scarlett O’Hara. Being a mother, for example, can be an outright advantage when these candidates want to foster the sense that as lawmakers they are more caring and empathetic than men. During the final days of last year’s race for governor in Louisiana, Kathleen Blanco — locked in a neck-and-neck battle with the Republicans’ thirty-two-year-old whiz kid Bobby Jindal, an assistant secretary at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services — very effectively suggested that where Jindal could discern only numbers, she saw real people. Blanco, the mother of six, featured a passel of children in her TV spots to drive the point home. Other Magnolias have used a similar strategy. Blanche Lincoln opted against a third term in the House because of a high-risk pregnancy, but trumpeted her new motherhood when she ran for the Senate two years after her twin sons were born. Her campaign spots featured family photographs with the caption “Daughter, wife, mother, congresswoman.” The order was not arbitrary.
And, finally, Starr suggested there’s something about Southern stereotypes that expects women to be more fiscally responsible.
Steel Magnolias benefit from the regional perception that women are more responsible with money. “Mommas do the bookkeeping in the South,” says Rich Masters, a former aide to Landrieu. “And they are a lot tighter with the purse strings.” Southern Democrats have been eager to convey that impression on the political stage. Lincoln was a founding member of the fiscally conservative House coalition known as the Blue Dogs, and Landrieu earned plaudits for saving Louisiana millions of dollars as state treasurer.
Whatever the reason, it’s heartening to see so many women excel in a region that isn’t known for being a bastion of feminist empowerment. I realize that some of these Dem women won’t win this year, but the fact that they are running strong campaigns and helping to keep the region competitive for the party is extremely encouraging.