State Representatives Inspire Conservative Young Women to Run for Office

During a breakout session at the Turning Point USA Young Women's Leadership Summit held over three days last week in Grapevine, Texas, two conservative young women elected to public office took the mic to encourage conference attendees to follow in their footsteps and run for office themselves. (RELATED: How to Defeat Woke, Inc.)

Kansas state Rep. Tory Marie Arnberger-Blew and North Dakota state Rep. Claire Cory addressed the audience to share their experiences, both having held their respective offices since their early 20s.

Cory was initially appointed to her position at the age of 21 in 2019 and then ran in her first election to fill her seat at the age of 23, all while a student at the University of North Dakota.

Arnberger-Blew first ran for her western Kansas house seat after graduating from Fort Hays State University. She gained political connections from interning in the governor's office while still a student. Initially, she was part of an effort to recruit candidates to replace a representative from her hometown who was never present to do his job. While a part of the recruitment effort, several individuals she spoke to flipped the script and encouraged her to run. Initially reluctant to the suggestion, she eventually listened and hasn't looked back since.

Although she is presently no longer the youngest legislator in the Kansas State House, Arnberger-Blew said she was glad to see more young people step up to run and win their seats across the state last fall.

Both young women are mentors for Run Gen Z, an organization founded by Iowa state Rep. Joe Mitchell, which seeks to help younger conservatives run for public office.

To kick off last Friday's breakout session, moderator Leyla Pirnie highlighted the fact that although about 30% of state legislators are women, only about 10% are Republican women.

According to the Center for American Women and Politics (CAWP) at Rutgers University, only 764 of 7,383 of America's state legislators are Republican women.

During the panel discussion, Arnberger-Blew and Cory covered a number of topics of interest to the attendees. These included building a network, fundraising, campaigning and dealing with negative social media comments. (RELATED: Dana Loesch Rips Apart Democrats' Radical Gun Control Proposals at Women's Summit)

Both representatives were also asked to share the biggest piece of advice they want attendees to leave the event with.

Regarding running for elected office, Cory was short and to the point — “Now is as good a time as any.”

Arnberger-Blew used her answer to highlight a specific element of running for office — campaigning door-to-door:

“Invest in good tennis shoes and get nice socks because you will knock on a lot of doors and get a lot of blisters.”

After the conclusion of the panel, I had the chance to speak with 20-year-old Alabama resident Abigail McGill, who plans to run for the Alabama State House in the next several years.

She said the biggest message she is taking away from the session is the emphasis placed on door-to-door campaigning.

“One of the things that stuck out to me was the campaign side of things — going door-to-door, being presentable — you can win an election like that. Even with little money, if you were to go out and meet people, you can get your name out there.”

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