Given Vermont’s liberal reputation, it might seem strange that it would be the last state to send a woman to Congress. “I believe strongly — and I think a lot of other people believe strongly — that if women, Democratic women, were actually at the table, these kinds of threatening situations would not be occurring, because women’s lived experiences would be at the center of the discussion and of the policy,” she said. Montana in 1916 made Rep. Jeannette Rankin the first woman elected to Congress, four years before the 19th Amendment secured women’s constitutional right to vote. The women seeking the Democratic nomination in the Vermont House race have not focused their campaigns on the possibility that one of them will be the first woman from the state elected to Congress. Balint has served in the state Senate for eight years, including six years in leadership positions, with the last two as president pro tempore.

Source: New York Times May 29, 2022 13:51 UTC