Only about 4% of Ohio state legislators are moms with children under 18 in 2022, according to Vote Mama Foundation.
Mom lawmakers grow in visibility but their proportional representation is still lacking
A few Ohio mom lawmakers said they had an important thing to do before officially deciding to run for office — conduct a family meeting.
“I’m a single mom, so I’m the only adult support in our family,” said state Rep. Rachel Baker, D-Cincinnati. “I knew to run and to serve would be a family endeavor, so I needed my kids to be on board.”
In honor of Mother’s Day, the Ohio Capital Journal talked to four state lawmakers about balancing motherhood and legislative responsibilities. Only about 4% of Ohio state legislators are moms with children under 18 in 2022, according to the Vote Mama Foundation.
Child care can be a big obstacle for moms to figure out when campaigning and, ultimately, as a lawmaker. House Minority Leader Allison Russo, D-Upper Arlington, remembers spending thousands of dollars in extra child care costs when she first campaigned in 2018. Her youngest daughter hadn’t celebrated her second birthday yet and her two sons were in elementary school at that time.
“It was a big, expensive part of my first campaign that we paid out of pocket,” she said. “I am privileged to have the circumstance that I have with family nearby and the support network, but not everybody has that, and I think if we want more parents with young children, especially women to run for office, we have to think about how do we create this support at work.”
Mom lawmakers and their families face additional attention and scrutiny by being in such a public position, especially on social media and during campaign season, lawmakers said.
“Running for office where the campaigns are not always friendly can be very difficult on families,” said State Rep. Beth Liston, D-Dublin. “When you have mail pieces that come to your house that say horrible things or TV ads or YouTube streaming, I think that’s something that women feel a lot that will hurt their kids at school.”
Ohio House Minority Leader Allison Russo, D-Upper Arlington
Being a mom to three children influences everything Russo does in the Statehouse.
“I am always thinking about what are we doing that is setting up our children, not just my children, but all children, for success in the future,” she said.
Russo’s children are 17, 14 and 7, and they were often with her on the campaign trail.
“I think it was a good thing for my kids to be with me knocking on doors, because I think voters recognized that I’m just a normal person trying to balance all the things that most people are trying to balance,” she said. “It reminds people that yes, I’m a real person.”
Her children would often get rewarded with ice cream or a cookie at a reception after being on the campaign trail with Russo.
“(The Statehouse) certainly has been a big part of their childhood,” she said.
Her children are in elementary, middle and high school, so she has a good understanding of what’s going on in schools — something that comes in handy with various education legislation.
“What is clear to me, often, is legislation gets passed, or gets introduced rather, by people who don’t necessarily have kids that are currently in school,” she said.
Russo is grateful to live about 15 minutes from the Statehouse.
“It does give me that flexibility to be able to balance, particularly at this stage in my kids’ lives where they are very busy and involved in activities,” she said. “I want to be able to see their games. I go to school activities during the middle of the week, so because of my proximity to the Statehouse, I’m able to balance those things.”
She leans on her husband, a set of grandparents that live nearby and supportive neighbors and friends for help with the kids and their various activities.
“A lot of it is my husband and I, a lot of negotiation between the two of us as we both balance careers and figuring out how we’re going to make it work,” she said. “If we can’t be there, can a grandparent be there? Or do we have a friend who can take a picture or text us to let us know how the game is going?”
State Rep. Rachel Baker, D-Cincinnati
One of the biggest reasons Baker ran for office was because of her three adopted children (ages 18, 15, and 12).
“I want to make Ohio a place that my kids want to stay, a place that my kids want to study and want to build their own life,” she said.
Baker, who is a single mom, has continued her career as a nurse so her three children took it upon themselves to help out around the house.
“I can’t work full time, serve in the legislature, be your mom, and do everything around the house,” she recalls thinking. “So something has to give and what it’s going to be is stuff around the house and they were like, this is important. We should do this as a family.”
Her oldest helps with car rides, her middle son cooks dinner every night and her youngest walks the dog.
“They really see the need for all of us to pitch in and all of us to be a family and contribute to the family and also help each other out,” Baker said, noting her son has become quite the cook.
“No one wants to go back to my cooking,” she said. “He started that in the middle of my campaign and he still cooks dinner every night.”
She drives up to Columbus on Tuesdays for committee meetings, stays the night in a hotel and drives back home on Wednesdays.
“I try to do a ton of my work Tuesday evening … and try to get as much done Tuesday and Wednesday, so that I’m not doing as much in the evenings the other days when I’m home and taking time away from them,” she said.
Being so busy has forced her family to be more deliberate in spending time together and they prioritize going out to dinner as a family every Sunday night.
“It’s been so nice,” she said. “Everyone enjoys it.”
State Rep. Monica Robb Blasdel, R-Columbiana
The distance from Blasdel’s home in Columbiana to the Statehouse is the hardest part of her job. She uses the two-and-a-half to three hour drive to take calls from constituents and listen to committee hearings.
Blasdel does nightly FaceTime calls with her daughters (ages 7 and 5) before they go to bed when she spends the night in Columbus for her job at the Statehouse.
“I just try to make the most of my time that I’m away from home, so that I can be more present when I am home,” she said. “As long as I’m transparent with my girls and they understand when mommy’s coming home and how many days I’ll be away, they’re usually pretty good.”
Her daughters were five and three when she first started campaigning for office. She is currently serving in her first term.
“I did make a promise to my family when we made this decision together (to run for office) that they would always come first,” Blasdel said. “I included my children as much as possible when it’s appropriate on the campaign trail. I like to take them to events. I like them to see me interacting with my constituents and understand the work that I do.”
Blasdel recently brought her daughters to the Statehouse so they could see what their mom does in Columbus.
“That answers a lot of questions in their head,” she said. “They have a better understanding of what I’m doing when I’m down here and what my schedule looks like.”
State Rep. Beth Liston, D-Dublin
When Liston started running for office in 2017, her daughter (who was 13 at the time) knocked on a lot of neighborhood doors to help her mom’s campaign. Her son, who was 11 at the time, would occasionally wear a shirt to support his mom’s campaign.
Her husband was a stay-at-home dad then, so he was able to help with child care.
“I’m very lucky that way in terms of being a mom and running for office,” she said. “I know other women that I work with certainly had a lot more stress in terms of figuring out what to do with their kids.”
But that doesn’t mean balancing being a mom and being a lawmaker doesn’t come with challenges.
“You still don’t want to miss the things that they’re doing,” Liston said. “Even if you had someone to watch them, you still miss portions of their lives which are important to you.”
She considers herself lucky to live near the Statehouse.
“The role involves weird hours,” she said. “A lot of events in the evening, which isn’t really all that great for family. … It’s always deciding whether I should go to those receptions and take those evening opportunities or be at home and make sure that I see my kids and have dinner together.”
As her children have ventured into their teenage years (her daughter is now 19 and her son is 17), she said “touch points” with her kids when they get home from school or an event have become important.
“Those are their important points that I think it’s hard to maintain when you have such atypical hours that are not really predictable,” she said.
House Bill 114
An Ohio bill, among other things, is trying to help make it easier for parents to run for office by allowing political candidates to use their campaign funds to pay for child care and bring Ohio campaign finance regulations in line with federal campaign finance regulations.
“I think it’ll help a lot of people to really start thinking about actually pursuing a role in politics and running for office,” said state Rep. Latyna Humphrey, D-Columbus. “… It’s hard to run for office and having to carry your kids with you. It makes it hard for them to do their job and really run the way that they want to because they’re trying to have that balancing act.”
Humphrey, who has an 11-year-old son, and fellow state Rep. Bill Seitz, R-Cincinnati, introduced House Bill 114 last year and it passed the House over the summer.
The Ohio Senate recently passed the bill but not before making significant changes by adding amendments that would allow President Joe Biden to be on Ohio’s ballot for November’s presidential election and ban foreign nationals from contributions for campaigns.
“The original intent of (HB) 114 was to make it allow campaign funds to be used for child care for candidates running for office,” State Sen. Bill DeMora, D-Columbus, said. “Senate Republicans held us hostage by slapping completely irrelevant partisan nonsense onto this bill because they know it needs to pass.”
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