The former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations tries to balance her identity as the only woman in the race for the GOP nomination with a Republican electorate that eschews identity politics.

The Georgia Women’s Legislative Caucus honored Speaker Jan Jones (R - Milton) as the first female speaker of the Georgia House of Representatives on Monday morning. Jones became Speaker of the Georgia House in November 2022 after former Speaker David Ralston's death.  

Currently, 40 Black women are members of the Georgia General Assembly, making up 16.9% of the entire state Legislature — a national record, according to the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University. 

Laphonza Butler, the political organization's third president, will be the first Black woman and first mother to lead the group. She is a former senior adviser to Kamala Harris and Airbnb executive.

2020 was an election year that saw record turnout by men and women from both parties. But the women’s vote was decisive in helping Joe Biden capture the White House and in pushing Democrats Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock to victory in the tight Senate runoffs. And it’s not just the ballot box where women are making their mark in Georgia politics. More women, and women of color, are also running for statewide office. We look at what's driving this trend with Patricia Murphy, a political reporter at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Across the country, record numbers of women are running for elected office in this year’s midterms — and a lot of them are running for the first time....