12 Women In Politics Who Are Running For The First Time

Alejandra Campoverdi's resume includes a degree from Harvard's Kennedy School of Government and time as a White House aide for Barack Obama. She told Refinery29 that her genetic risk of breast cancer motivated her to run for Congress. "If women's bodies are to be the battleground, we'll best steel ourselves for a relentless war of independence together," she wrote in an April essay.

When Myya Jones announced that she was running for mayor of Detroit, she was still enrolled as a student at Michigan State University. Jones, who graduated earlier this month, is also encouraging other young people to get involved. In an interview with Jopwell, a recruitment site for "talented diverse candidates from the most underrepresented minority groups," Jones said:

We can no longer sit back and wait for things to change or allow other people to tell us that we’re too young or inexperienced to make it happen ourselves. No more fearing the unknown. It is imperative that we are a part of the process. This country belongs to us.

Lacey Rzeszowski had been a strong advocate for gun control for years, The New York Times reported, but finally decided to run for office herself after the Women's March. "Well now I know what my Dad always said to me — to do something right, you have to do it yourself," Rzeszowski wrote in a blog post on her campaign website. "And I am here to tell you that I won't stop until I get to the State House and get some safe and sane, common sense gun laws on the books."

Utah's 3rd district is currently represented by Jason Chaffetz, the chair of the House Oversight Committee and noted critic of Hillary Clinton's private email server. Even before Chaffetz announced he wouldn't be running for re-election, Kathryn Allen was planning to challenge him for his seat. After attending a town hall where Chaffetz was chastised by constituents for his views on health care, Allen, who is a medical doctor, decided to run herself. "I came away from that meeting feeling like [Chaffetz] was a poor public servant who was out of touch with his constituents," Allen told USA Today.

Emily Marburger, who just won the local Democratic primary, is running for mayor of Bellevue, Pennsylvania, a suburb of Pittsburgh. "[I] just really evaluated my past experience and my talents and abilities against what a mayor does; I just decided to go for it," Marburger told Bustle last month.

Paige Strasbaugh is a former teacher and an alum of Emerge Pennsylvania, the Keystone State's branch of a national organization that aims to identify women who'd be good candidates for office and encourage them to run. Strasbaugh's campaign website tells the story of a student she had whose prospects were severely limited by poor standardized test performance. "There are plenty of students like mine in Woodland Hills, students who are full of promise and hope that their efforts are heading toward something incredible," she wrote in a post on her campaign website. "Public education promises that it will give students the opportunity to excel and to accomplish their goals."

In a recent candidates forum, according to the Beaverton Valley Times, Felicita Monteblanco explained that she wanted to focus on making the area's parks accessible to all, including people with disabilities, and that she looked forward to sharing her new campaign knowledge with "peers, young people, and communities of color."

Rebecca Rhynhart is taking on her city's incumbent controller because she believes he isn't doing his job well. "After three terms as Controller, he has plenty of headlines, but few substantive accomplishments. I have the financial experience to make our government more efficient and I'll put getting results ahead of politics and publicity," the Democratic candidate wrote on her campaign website.

Kellie Lynn Collins is running for the seat currently occupied by Rep. Jody Hice, who ran unopposed in 2016. Collins has criticized her opponent's stances on women's health, the role of religion in politics, and LGBTQ rights, among other issues.

"When your friends and family are depending on you to make ethical decisions that affect their lives for many years, a member of Congress should hold her or himself to a much higher standard than the bare minimum that many GOP members are currently using as a benchmark," Collins told Girls Really Rule in a recent interview.

Debra Rodman, a university professor, former Fulbright scholar, and mother of two, recently won the Democratic nomination for her district's seat in the Virginia House of Delegates, one of two houses in the state's bicameral legislature. "Nothing else matters if you can't find a job," Rodman explains on her campaign site. "And while Donald Trump and the Richmond Republicans talk a great game on the economy, their actions tell a different story."

Hannah Selinger recently announced her campaign against Rep. Lee Zeldin, a New York Republican congressman known for his support of Donald Trump. "It was easy to become complacent during the past 8 years," Selinger wrote on her campaign's GoFundMe page. "Let us move past complacency. Long Island can be better. So let's make it better together."

According to her website, Texas native Jana Lynne Sanchez is running for office because she is opposed to career politicians:

I believe citizen representatives should go to D.C. and represent our interests for only a short time, and then return to the district to continue serving. I am fully in support of strict term limits.