--- title: If She Wins: The First-Time Congressional Candidates Who Turned Their Districts Blue | TIME description: A record 25 Democratic women who are heading to Congress for the first time after Tuesday night, helping Democrats take the House of Representatives even as the party lost key Senate and governors’ races. canonical: https://time.com/video/aEVM39NM/ og:title: If She Wins: The First-Time Congressional Candidates Who Turned Their Districts Blue og:description: A record 25 Democratic women who are heading to Congress for the first time after Tuesday night, helping Democrats take the House of Representatives even as the party lost key Senate and governors’ races. og:url: https://time.com/video/aEVM39NM/ og:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/aEVM39NM/poster.jpg?width=720 og:type: video.other twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: If She Wins: The First-Time Congressional Candidates Who Turned Their Districts Blue twitter:description: A record 25 Democratic women who are heading to Congress for the first time after Tuesday night, helping Democrats take the House of Representatives even as the party lost key Senate and governors’ races. twitter:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/aEVM39NM/poster.jpg?width=720 --- # If She Wins: The First-Time Congressional Candidates Who Turned Their Districts Blue > Sponsored content. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. ## Video: If She Wins: The First-Time Congressional Candidates Who Turned Their Districts Blue [Watch (HLS stream): If She Wins: The First-Time Congressional Candidates Who Turned Their Districts Blue](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/aEVM39NM.m3u8) (7:50)  _Published 2018-11-07. A record 25 Democratic women who are heading to Congress for the first time after Tuesday night, helping Democrats take the House of Representatives even as the party lost key Senate and governors’ races._ --- Jul 28, 2023 4:19 AM UTC --- ## More From This Series [All Videos](https://time.com/video/) [Why Sharice Davids Could Win as a First-Time Democratic Female Candidate in Kansas](/video/FFXYjT23/) ### Why Sharice Davids Could Win as a First-Time Democratic Female Candidate in Kansas [Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum Wins Democratic Nomination for Florida Governor](/video/OraTBd2N/) ### Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum Wins Democratic Nomination for Florida Governor [Democrat Christine Hallquist Becomes First Major Party Transgender Candidate for Governor](/video/6zPU6bm9/) ### Democrat Christine Hallquist Becomes First Major Party Transgender Candidate for Governor --- ## Transcript When Obama was elected, everybody said this says something about America. Yes. When Trump was elected, everybody said this says something about America. What do you think your election says about America? We the people. Your campaign [ INAUDIBLE ]. We the people. This started out as an idea. I was mad and thought I needed to do something. That story's not possible in every country. People here. Democrats won the midterms with the help of women voters, women organizers, and women candidates. In the ten days before the election, we drove across the Midwest to meet some of the first time women candidates trying to flip Republican seats. [ MUSIC ] We're in Kansas' third district, wait, where am I, yeah, here. [ MUSIC ] Kansas' third district is a swing district. It tends to go for republicans when republicans have a wave, and. And Democrats. When Democrats have a wave, that's because its a district in a red state with a lot of conservatives, but it's also a suburb of a big city. So the suburban voters who are gonna decide the midterms are the types of people who live in this district. Our first stop is Sharice Davids. She is a really interesting candidate. I've had to fight my whole life because of who I am, who I love. She is a ****, Native American, former MMA fighter, who's also an attorney. She's running for Kevin Yoder's seat in Congress. There are a lot of different aspects of who I And what my experience has been that a lot of people connect with for one reason or another. The number of people who wanna see more women running for office, the number of people who wanna see more first generation college students running for office. It took me four years to get an associate's degree, cuz I was working the whole time that I was in school. We don't have enough people in Congress who Know what it's like to go to community college. [ BLANK_AUDIO ] So we're going to visit the campaigns of Cindy Axey in Iowa's third district and Abby Finkenauer in Iowa's first district. If they both win it could be a sign that Iowa isn't as deep red as the 2016 election would suggest. [ INAUDIBLE ] [ APPLAUSE ] And just because I only have seven more days to say this and it's awfully fun with you guys, I'm Cindy Axne and I'm running for the US Congress of [ INAUDIBLE ]. [ APPLAUSE ] [ APPLAUSE ] What's the single most important issue facing Iowans that you're going to fix? Healthcare. Making sure everyone has access to affordable qualifty healthcare and that means coverage of preexisting conditions. Trump won this district by about four points in 2016 and David Young has voted with Trump about 99 % of the time. And so the question is, Will this southwestern Iowa district that favored Trump, is it possible that they might vote for a Democrat this time? [ MUSIC ] One of the big problems facing rural America is a brain Dream situation. People will raise their families in these districts and then their kids grow up and there are not enough educational opportunities and not enough job opportunities for young people and so then they end up moving away. So when you have somebody like Abby Finkenauer who is running in Iowa's first district on a platform of better rural jobs Educational opportunities, that's the kind of person who could really revitalize a district like this. I've decided to run for Congress because this is personal. [ APPLAUSE ] You see I grew up a daughter of a union, [ INAUDIBLE ] [ MUSIC ] If she wins her way she'll be one of the youngest women in Congress. [ BLANK_AUDIO ] Lauren Underwood is not supposed to win in this district. Until really recently she was down in the polls by a lot. And it's only in the last couple weeks That this race has been marked a toss up so if she wins it will be a huge upset. [ APPLAUSE ] There's been tremendous enthusiasm about early voting in the 14th district. We're at presidental level interest to walk in and early vote. Vote by mail has never been more More popular than it is this year. You can see an average primary here in the Illinois 14th District 8, 000 people pulled democratic ballots but this year 51, 200. [ APPLAUSE ] 51. 200 people. It's called Democratic balance. What does it feel like? It is unbelievable. This is not a world in which I'm comfortable, in that the vice- president is coming to my Community to help me win this election, like what? She's a registered nurse, and she's worked for the Department of Health and Human Services under the Obama administration and helped to implement the ACA, so she knows the law. This is a seat that would be absolutely safe for Republicans if they hadn't tried to repeal the ACA. How has it changed the way you think about this country and what's possible in this country? Yeah, America's the best country ever where a story like mine is possible. A regular, middle class woman working full time is able to, with a friend, figure out how to get on the ballot, get on the ballot Walk around, knock on doors, get signatures. Talk to the party and they're okay. Go for it. I think that's such a gift to know and in your early 30s. We literally can do anything. [ MUSIC ] So we're here in Birmingham, Michigan in Michigan's 11th district It's 8: 00 on election night, and the mood is tense. That Haley Stevens running against Lena Epstein. Lena Epstein was the Michigan Chair of the Trump campaign. Haley Stevens was the Chief of Staff on Obama's Jobs task force, which brought a lot of jobs back to this area. [ MUSIC ] [ APPLAUSE ] Here's where we are by the end of the night. Sharice Davids won, Cindy Axne won, Abby Finkenauer won, Lauren Underwood won, and Haley Stevens won. Every single woman that we talked to on this road trip ended up winning their campaign. Truman's words remind. America was not built on fear. America was built on courage, on imagination and an unbeatable determination to do the job at hand. A record number of women are the House of Representatives and at least 26 First- time Congresswomen are entering the House this year. That is pretty historic. 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