According to the Texas Tribune, Texas women either won their races, or are in runoffs, in more than 50 contests statewide.
Six of those contests are here in North Texas. Ruby Faye Woolridge and Jana Lynne Sanchez are in one of the races. They both want to be the Democratic candidate for Congressional District 6. That is the seat U.S. Rep. Joe Barton currently holds. Each got about 37 percent of the vote.
Woolridge is running for the seat for a second time. Along the way, she has gotten to know a group of Democratic candidates statewide who are also running for Congress.
“It was really powerful when we came together, because we found out our experiences were similar in some ways. We had diverse education, we had diverse family issues, but we all had the same issue of fighting from the back,” said Wooldridge.
Jana Lynne Sanchez is part of an informal group of 28 women candidates.
“A lot of it is just wanting to support each other, wanting to have somebody who knows what we are going through,” said Sanchez.
The women join a growing group trying to take public office.
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While there are more Democrats who won their primaries, according to the Texas Tribune, some Republicans did as well.
Angela Paxton won her hard fought Senate race. According to SMU Political Science Professor Cal Jillson, Republican candidates have better chances.
“Women who are running as Republicans will be running in the majority party so they’ll do better. But part of building the minority party, part of building the Democratic party is getting people motivated, getting them to turn out in elections, and getting them to step forward for office,” said Jillson.
But Jillson believes in both Congress and a Texas state legislature that are about 20 percent women, there will be gains.
“There is a good chance that we are going to see an increase in the women in our state legislature. Maybe even in our congressional delegation,” he added.
The primary runoff election is May 22; early voting goes from May 14-18.
