"It's going to be a new era": Sacramento City Council has new female majority
SACRAMENTO — New election results are showing a big win for women in Sacramento.
On Wednesday, the only man running for Sacramento City Council conceded, creating a new female majority at city hall with women holding five of the nine seats.
"It's going to be a new era for Sacramento," said Karina Talamantes, Sacramento City Councilmember-elect.
Talamantes is one of three new councilmembers being sworn in, and all three are women.
"We need a seat at the table, and five women on the Sacramento City Council is the way to go," Talamantes said.
"That's a good and a great thing," said Mayor Darrell Steinberg. "That's progress"
Steinberg said he supports the new diversity.
"For most of Sacramento's history and for most of the history of this country, men have been in charge," he said.
A female majority is something that hasn't happened in 30 years, dating all the way back to when Mayor Anne Rudin and four other women served on the council.
"I believe the last time the council actually had a female majority was back in 1989, and that's just a few years after I was born," said Mai Vang, Sacramento City Councilmember.
Three years ago, the number of women on the city council had fallen to just one.
"It's really important to make sure that we have elected leaders that reflect the growing diversity of Sacramento," Vang said.
The wave of women winning elected office is not just in Sacramento. At the California State Capitol, there will now be more female legislators than ever before.
"To see the number of people that decided to step up this year was incredibly inspiring and beautiful to see," Talamantes said.
Talamantes said many were inspired to run because of recent political changes.
"With Roe v. Wade, we felt those impacts," she said.
But Talamantes said even though women now outnumber men, it doesn't guarantee they will always vote the same.
"It will be different, and the lenses will be different, and our values may be different, but at the end of the day, we all have the same objective of making Sacramento better," she said.
The outcome of the District 5 seat in Oak Park is still too close to call, but both candidates are women.
The new councilmembers will be sworn-in at city hall on December 13.