Andrea Hailey, Chief Executive Officer, Vote.org 
Carolyn Witte, Co-founder and CEO, Tia 
Moderator: Michal Lev-Ram, Editor-at-Large, FORTUNE; Co-chair, Fortune MPW Next Gen 

MPW Next Gen 2022 - The Power Of Women Voters

Conferences

Andrea Hailey, Chief Executive Officer, Vote.org 
Carolyn Witte, Co-founder and CEO, Tia 
Moderator: Michal Lev-Ram, Editor-at-Large, FORTUNE

week. And one reason why I might be the fight for abortion rights. Um, as we know, in addition to a very important issue to many of us is also an economic issue. And so now we're here to talk about where do we go from here to members of the M. P. W. Next gen community, weigh in on the emerging political map as we drill down on the power of women voters, please welcome Andrea Hailey, chief executive officer of vote dot org and Caroline witty co founder and ceo tia for a conversation with fortunes from thank you have a seat. Okay, Andrea Caroline, thank you for being here with us. Um, I'm gonna just dive right in because there's a lot to talk about. Um Andrea following the recent elections, you were quoted saying women voters are forced to be reckoned with in the midterms. The biggest story of this election could be women voters who are poised to upset historical norms and determine the outcome in many states. So that's there's a lot there. Help us understand what you meant by that and just unpack for us some of what we did end up seeing from women voters in the recent midterm. Yes, well, first, thank you for having me and so wonderful to hear all of the amazing women that are here today. I was sitting backstage and just so impressive. Um, what we saw at vote dot org ahead of the elections when when roe v wade was overturned. We saw a 300% spike in voter registrations organically. So we knew something was coming and in 10 states, we saw over 500% spike. Um, and in one state, Kansas, we saw 1000% spike in registration. And the majority of these registrations were coming from women in particular young women. Um, so we knew that women were going to be a force to be reckoned with this midterm election. We just saw over 100 million people participate. Women make up a large portion of the people who participated. I think we had 10 million more women participate than men. That's the entire, you know, size of what like new york city. Um, so women were forced to be reckoned with in the entire campaign season. We kept hearing, well, will women care, will they show up, Will they not? And I think that the, the answer was just decisively given, um, Caroline, I'm gonna go to you. What what do you think in in hindsight now? Um, and actually maybe just explain what your company does real quick. I think every everybody's familiar with vote dot org. You guys all vote, raise your hand? Yeah, Okay, good Caroline. Can you just just explain real quick what your company does? Sure. So it's so great to be here. I'm Caroline would be the co founder and ceo of we are a care delivery company defining the new standard of care for women, uh, deliver comprehensive, the whole women's health care for women that's inclusive of abortion care. So we've been following this issue closely, uh really tracking what we do at Tia what we see our patients want, what women across the country want and how the link between women's health, women's rights, women's uh role in elections uh, is so, so important and excited to talk more about that. Yeah. And and so on that note, um, what do you think again in in in hindsight here? And I know there's some things are still being teased out here, but um, but in hindsight, what did the pundits and the polls get wrong when it comes to reproductive rights? Women voters and general voters, not just female voters? Yeah. So I think the pundits and the polls made the same mistake that uh is commonly made by those in government and those that work in healthcare, they failed to actually listen to women. Uh, it starts pretty basic. Uh, If they had listened to women, they would have known that for 76% of women in this country. We believe that abortion should be legal and then we should expand access. And I know this. Uh, my company knows this because we ran a national survey in the lead up to the elections that demonstrated this and we start, you know, building a new model of care by doing what other people aren't doing, which is actually listening to women. So for that reason, it wasn't surprising at all. Um what do you think? I mean, we we did get a preview by the way you mentioned Kansas, You know, this was just a little bit earlier. Um, we we saw not only the engagement, um, these incredibly high numbers of voters who turned out, but we also saw the outcome that it was overly, you know, voters overwhelmingly rejected an amendment that would have struck abortion protections in the state's constitution. What does that tell us going forward? I mean, I think at at this point, like, okay, pundits and polls like how do you think this is going to inform politicians going forward? So, a couple of things, I think we can learn from this. So first we saw that in every state where abortion was on the ballot, voters passed to keep it legal or expand access. So I think this is a really, really strong indication of something, again, that we've known for a long time that for the vast majority of americans, both women and men, we believe that abortion should be legal. And so I think we're going to see that trend at the state level, even in states like Kansas where you may not expect this uh, prove prove out, you know, in that same pattern. The second thing is it's not just about health care policies. The centris city of this issue can actually sway elections more broadly and we saw this in the way that women showed up and cast their votes for Senate candidates, governors, candidates, um, that represent uh, their views when it comes to abortion, reproductive health and healthcare more broadly in swing states like michigan pennsylvania and Arizona state or TSR thousands of patients And has just been a very restricted state when it comes to reproductive healthcare. We voted in the pro choice candidates at the Senate level and at the Governor's level. And so I think if we look at the results from last week's midterms and cast that forward to 2024, it's clear that candidates on both sides need to walk the talk, uh, and actually deliver on women's health care as a critical part of their agenda to get women's votes in the next election. Um, I want to get to any questions or comments from the audience. So please be thinking and I'll turn to you guys in just a second. But um, Andrea any anything on your and same same question. I think there's a through line here between um, the issues women care about and why women came out to vote this election cycle and um, basic american freedoms too much like reproductive rights, Uh, the right to vote and access to the ballot box that's supported by over 70% of the us population period. So really what we saw is that extreme extremism was also a motivation in places where, you know, in Georgia, let's say where you've had voter suppression laws that were passed in other states where voter suppression laws were passed. You saw people overcoming that overwhelmingly to get out and cast their ballot anyway, despite those. And I think it's um, I think we have to look at all of this is part of the same through line americans. If there's one thing americans really don't like it's having a fundamental right taken away or threatened. So I think that, um, I think when we look at our democracy and reproductive rights, um, they all kind of go hand in hand questions comments from the audience. Please raise your hand. We'll bring a microphone over to you. We've got one right over here coming to you. It's coming. If you could introduce yourself, please. Hi, my name is keisha. Um and I was on the hike with you. We had a good time. So it's very timely. I live in Atlanta Georgia. Um and it's been a very interesting place politically. We did get a strike down of the six week abortion ban today by Fulton County Superior judge. That's my county, I've been voting and um an activist. However, we also Stacey Abrams lost her race for governor. And if you look at the statistics for voters, uh, the the women voters in Georgia, the patterns look a little bit different and they're not all pro choice. And so I guess my question really is, I mean, I'm a liberal. I'll just put out their sign, I'm in public health. So, you know, I believe in it. But when you live in a state where you can see that across the spectrum of women voters, it's it's not purple, it's blue and red in Georgia. I guess my question or comment is what would you say in terms of being able to establish some common ground or middle ground in some of these states, where it's really kind of a polarizing issue and we saw a lot of women who were voting so that abortion would continue to be banned in the state based on their votes for the Senate were in a runoff based on their vote for governor and based on the fact that we've got a very, very red state government as well. I think there's a there's a double edged sword here. And while it's very clear that reproductive rights and abortion specifically drove women and men to the polls across the country with some nuances across states. As you've mentioned, There's a broader need and I think an important opportunity to shift the conversation from women's health as a single issue to care for 51% of the population. We are not a body part or a positive or negative pregnancy test and women care about a lot more than just abortion. And I think that's something else that has also been missed and wrongly reduced as a result of the central city of this conversation. And so I think in particular in states like Georgia where there is perhaps more polarization when it comes to abortion, it's critically important that we shift the conversation from women's health equals abortion to women's health. Uh care for half the population. That's mental, physical repre health care. How can we drive alignment around that? I can tell you that women are unified when it comes to their belief and desire to have mental health care coverage, improve maternal health care coverage, paid family leave, some of these other policy efforts. And I think it's important that we as voters and as policymakers, um find areas of alignment and shift the conversation around women's health more broadly because it's comprehensive women's health that's gonna enable women to be full and active members of our society, not just access to certain reproductive health care services. I think we see the same thing in democracy work where how we talk about these things and how we make sure that we are reaching out and sharing, you know, values with people instead of, you know, being against people instead trying to find commonality and common ground democracy for instance, um, polls incredibly low. Um, most people, I think it's something like 7% agree with democracy, but when you say access to the ballot box, It goes up to over, you know, 70%. So it's also sometimes semantics and what people really think about when they're thinking about um like to your point, women's health or when they're thinking about democracy. I always talk about democracy and couple that sentence with access to the ballot box, which is what democracy is, but people just have different connotations. So I think semantics sometimes become really important and to really deeply listen to each other. The 7% was what exactly people. There was a poll, did any of you see it? There was a poll in the New York times that came out and it said that Americans something around like Americans don't like democracy or that they don't believe in democracy. But how you phrase questions really matters. Um because people's concept of what a democracy is or what democracy means um is different. Some people across this country don't know exactly what we're talking about. When we say preserving democracy it's so important. But they sure know what you're talking about when you say you're right to access the ballot box, which everybody for the most part agrees with and wants to have a voice and in their local community. And so how we discuss things whether it's um abortion and women's health or democracy and access to the ballot box really does matter. Um and how we're communicating and you know, remembering that not just communicating to people specifically in this room, but you know, to people all across this nation, other questions or comments. Please raise your hand Elise. Come on. You always have something to say we've got one back there. If you could introduce yourself. Yes. Hi santa dolly RFK human rights um on the on the topic of sort of voting access. Um how are how are your organization's actually tackling that as an issue in order to uh dismantle some of the challenges that racial or ethnic voters have. If we look at the block of women as as a gender based voting block. Um how how do they have access to the ballot box? Just very curious around how you're, you're tackling that in your organization? Thanks. It's interesting. Um it depends on, you know, elections have different rules depending on the state year end state to state. They're all sorts of different factors that come into play. I'm from Indianapolis Indiana originally. And um in 2020 when I went to vote in Indianapolis, my team watched me get voters suppressed in real time. So I went out day one for early voting in Annapolis for over a million people had only opened five polling locations. There were seven hour lines. Like most americans. I had to go back to work. So I went back to work, I showed up the next day, there was still a seven hour line. I went back, I should have just said, don't you know who I am. I know. So ceo of votes at work. I started freaking out. They were like, listen, the ceo of vote dot org can't not vote, I'm trying, I'm getting out there. Um but you know, and in indiana, I was able to, you know, luckily the position I was in, I went on the news almost every single day and said I can't even vote what is happening here. They started opening up more polling locations after that. But we really, there are different ways that we tackle this issue. One is to reach out to voters and meet them where they are. I know somebody from WhatsApp is here. We built a boat with WhatsApp to reach latino voters to give information um in in real time if somebody has a question about voting, part of our belief is that everybody wants to participate, but that there are barriers that are standing in the way and part of and some of those barriers were able to lower just with our tools and technology, other barriers we have to lower by addressing it in the courts. We filed a lawsuit in federal court in texas um, over a voter suppression law and we were able to strike it down. Um it's up on appeal now and we've also filed a lawsuit in Georgia. Um, so we're we have to think in this day and age about how all of these different things or get out the vote efforts, our registration efforts, um the integrations with companies that we have. Um and plus you know voter information, how, how all of that comes together for a comprehensive picture of how we can address systematic issues and lower the barriers to voting. Got another question over here. I I just wanted to maybe push a little bit on. So I agree. And I can see how when roe v wade was overturned, a lot of women went to register to vote. But I wanted to push on the point that was made earlier about semantics because I didn't dig really deeply into the the exit polling data. But what you saw in terms of women vs men, if you look at the breakdown by age and if you look at the breakdown by race and then you look at how women voted. I'm almost wondering if the issue is not a semantic issue and whether there are women who are actually voting with party, irrespective of whether you talk about reproductive health or women's health or health for 50% of the population. And so how do we as women start to think about almost sort of dismantling this thought of voting behind party and really getting a lot of these women who went to register but registered and voted against us. How do we tackle that? Because I think we have a very big problem across age and across race and as women, we need to figure out how to bring that together for the good of all of us. Absolutely. I think when you know earlier talking about semantic part of what I was saying there is for a vote dot org where mostly 30 People 35 and under are using the platform. So um there what were what was really talking about is this difference in people's minds between what what does it mean to be in a democracy? Like what does democracy even matter? And what does it mean to have access to the ballot box? Because those, even those, those two things are the same. Um a lot of people don't connect the dots between them, but when you're talking about um voting along party lines, I would say that in truth there, depending on the age demographics of who you're talking about and where, you know, I think that it's notoriously famous that um when married women who are married to men tend to vote with their husbands, right? So thing single women can't vote in their own interests, then get people get married and they start to vote in in their husband's interest of time. There's more work to be done. I think um narrow actually had some information around um uh in the last presidential election cycle. People also looking at socio economic levels and saying, you know, there are a lot of women who um fought for things like equal pay and then people said, well, equal pay sounded elitist because I'm an hourly job and equal pay may be great if you're in a partner in a law firm, but that's not my situation. So I think it's also kind of listening to listening to those women as well to see what what are the things that are, you know, really driving your self interest. But I hear you on what you're saying. I don't believe that it's, you know, all across the board, I think that there are people who there's still a lot of work to be done around, what does it mean to be an empowered woman voting in your own self interest, not just in the interest of someone else. I was just layer in there that I think the single most important thing that we can do, whether you're in government or in health care or uh wherever, whatever you do is actually just listen to women at both as a group, understand where are we united, um and then where the the differences as you're calling out amongst age, race, ethnicity, uh you know, urban versus rural, there's lots of things that unite us and then there are points of difference as well. And I think what's been fundamentally missed by frankly politicians on within both parties is actually understanding the economic and political weight of women in this country and the central city of things from women's health, to women rights, to women's ability to participate fully in our society and we need to shift, you know, the government is built by and large by men or healthcare systems built by and large by men. And if we actually take a step back and say, let's listen to what real women want and understand that not based on party line and actually enact policies and service of what real women want. Then I think we have an opportunity to make real progress and connect those dots in more meaningful ways. Well, Caroline Andrea um Andrea Excuse me. Um thank you so much. We look forward to having you both of you back in 2024 and hopefully before there's lots more to talk about, thank you.