CANTON â The tri-county region is preparing for the upcoming election season, highlighting women who have broken barriers in local government and how they are encouraging others to pursue the same path â to run for office and make a difference in their communities.
Women are achieving record numbers of representation in politics, but despite these strides, women still hold only 39% of local government seats, according to government data reported by Represent Women.
The upcoming election season, with primary elections on June 22 and Election Day on Nov. 2, will feature roughly 300 elections in Jefferson, Lewis and St. Lawrence counties.
In 2008, 33% of people who ran for local government positions in Jefferson County were women, while in 2019, 40% of those who ran were women. Likewise, in 2003, 237 candidates ran for local government in St. Lawrence County, but only 27% of them were women. Nearly 16 years later in 2019, 33% of the candidates were women.