Surge in Women of Color Running for Office Spotlighted in New PBS Docuseries

The timing couldn’t be more right for the docuseries And She Could Be Next, which examines how women of color are changing American politics by running for political office. Directed by Grace Lee and Marjan Safinia (who are two of the series’ producers), And She Could Be Next follows six women of color in their campaigns for the 2018 mid-term elections. Although these campaigns have ended, the documentary is a peek into what the future will look like, as the United States becomes more racially diverse and voters want their elected officials to be a more accurate reflection of that diversity. And She Could Be Next, the first multipart show for the PBS program POV, launches POV’s 33rd season when the two-part docuseries is televised on June 29 and June 30.

The Reflective Democracy Campaign, a project of the nonprofit Women Donors Network, presented some sobering and encouraging statistics in its 2019 report The Electability Myth. Women of color represent 20% of the U.S. population, yet make up only 8.8% of the U.S. Congress. However, since 2015, the numbers of women of color have increased dramatically as both candidates and elected officials — up 40% in U.S. Congress and up 38% in state legislatures.

The six political candidates featured in And She Could Be Next are:

• Stacey Abrams, candidate for governor of Georgia.
• Bushra Amiwala, candidate for Cook County Board of Commissioners in Illinois.
• María Elena Durazo, candidate for state senator of California’s 24th district, which includes Central Los Angeles and East Los Angeles.
• Veronica Escobar, candidate for U.S. Representative for Texas’ 16th congressional district, which includes El Paso.
• Lucy McBath, candidate for U.S. Representative for Georgia’s 6th congressional district, which includes northern suburbs of Atlanta.
• Rashida Tlaib, candidate for U.S. Representative for Michigan’s 13th congressional district, which includes portions of Detroit.

Win or lose, these women were trailblazers in their own unique ways. And She Could Be Next also shows the power of embracing diversity and shattering old stereotypes of what a politician is supposed to look like. And the docuseries highlights how these candidates are particularly qualified to address issues that hit hardest with financially deprived communities of color, such as health care, education, criminal justice, immigration, reproductive rights, and voter suppression.

In the docuseries, Tlaib says that Arab Americans who ran for political office used to spend a lot of time trying to prove that they’re Americans. Now, Tlaib declares: “When I say I’m a social-justice seeker or I’m a mama for justice … that’s where I’m American. I don’t need to say [it]. I act like an American.”

Abrams says she’s part of a movement that is changing perceptions of Black women in politics: “We’re welcome to be the worker or the voter, but it has been difficult to break in and become the candidate. Often, we are expected to stand by quietly behind others, but we are never expected to be the ones in the front.”

McBath represents a new wave of women who ran for U.S. Congress in 2018, without any prior experience as an elected official. A former Delta Airlines flight attendant, McBath says in the documentary that she became an “accidental activist” after her son, Jordan Davis, was tragically murdered in an act of gun violence in 2012, and she helped form Mothers of the Movement, an advocacy group for Black mothers whose children have been killed by gun violence. McBath is clear about why she wanted to run for political office: “There are not enough people on the inside who look like me.”

Durazo speaks for many women and people of color when she says: “We are losing rights.” She believes the best way to make progress is to be organized, not divided: “When you stop organizing, you go back.”

Escobar says for many women of color who run for political office, the stakes are extremely high to give a voice to the underrepresented: “This is the gamble of our lives.” Amiwala was just 19 years old when she ran for a seat on the Cook County Board of Commissioners, and she comments in the documentary on the unique perspective that women of color bring to politics: “We don’t have to be victims first to be leaders.”

And She Could Be Next co-director Safinia tells Women’s Media Center that she hopes the series will show that “diversity” doesn’t mean “replace all white men,” because what America is about is representation of all the nation’s people. “There has to be space made” in the power structure, she says. And she has this to say to people who fear diversity: “When you’re accustomed to privilege, equality feels like oppression.”

The docuseries shows that the candidates had supporters from all racial groups, spanning different generations. As for how the COVID-19 pandemic is affecting campaigns for women of color in the 2020 elections, Safinia says it has become necessary to pivot to more digital campaigning. “Women of color are used to getting a lot done with very little and being resourceful.”

And She Could Be Next didn’t have diversity just in front of the camera. Behind the scenes, women of color were the majority of the docuseries’ production leaders, including co-directors Lee and Safinia; producer Jyoti Sarda; executive producer Ava DuVernay; and contributing field directors Yoruba Richen, Geeta Gandbhir, Amber Fares, Deborah Esquenazi, Ramona Emerson, and Anayansi Prado. Justine Nagan and Chris White were the POV executive producers. And She Could Be Next is a co-production of POV and ITVS, in association with the Center for Asian American Media and Latino Public Broadcasting, and a co-presentation of Black Public Media and the Center for Asian American Media.

“In the documentary field, there are lots of conversations about who gets to tell the story, particularly when it comes to women of color,” co-director Lee tells Women’s Media Center. “Who’s behind the camera often doesn’t resemble who’s in front of the camera.”

Lee reveals that the production team was carefully selected so there was “familiarity” with each community of color that’s represented in the docuseries. “There was no parachuting in and trying to figure out what are the needs of this community.”

And even though the women of color candidates featured in And She Could Be Next all happen to be Democrats, Safinia says: “This is not a partisan-politics film. This is about the changing face of America … It is incumbent on us to redefine what it is to be American.”