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Thirteen states will have women governors next year, a record set after Republican Kelly Ayotte won the governor's race in New Hampshire last week. Her victory builds on the historic gains made during the 2022 elections. NPR's Juliana Kim reports.
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UNIDENTIFIED GROUP: (Chanting) Kelly. Kelly. Kelly. Kelly. Kelly.
JULIANA KIM, BYLINE: The crowd chanted Republican Kelly Ayotte's name during her victory speech last Tuesday.
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KELLY AYOTTE: Tonight's victory is a victory for New Hampshire, but it's also a victory for an even brighter future for the greatest state in the nation.
KIM: Her win adds to the record set in 2022, when 12 women were elected to lead their states. Before that, the record had stood unbroken for nearly two decades. Kelly Dittmar is the director of research at Rutgers University Center for American Women and Politics. She says while the new record is a milestone, there's still more progress to be made.
KELLY DITTMAR: Women will be 26% of all U.S. voters in 2025. That's going to be a new high, but there are still 18 states that have never elected a woman governor.
KIM: Two of them are Missouri and Indiana. They held governor races this year with women candidates, but they both lost. Dittmar says when women are elected into office, it tends to promote more trust in government.
DITTMAR: One is about fairness and legitimacy in a representative democracy.
KIM: The second, she says, is that seeing women in office sends a positive message to young women that they can be in political leadership, too.
DITTMAR: And for young men, will they see that and hold less biases about who can and should be in elected leadership?
KIM: Women in office are far from monolithic in their positions or priorities. But they've often paved the way in raising issues that affect women - around caregiving, including women in medical research and improving how women are treated in the military. Those gains coincide with Vice President Harris' unsuccessful run to become the first female president. Had she won, Minnesota Lieutenant Governor Peggy Flanagan would have taken over as governor for vice presidential candidate Tim Walz. That would have made her the first Indigenous woman to serve as governor in the U.S. Juliana Kim, NPR News. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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