In an election cycle that saw women take charge in Michigan not only at polling places, but in state and federal government, it should come as little surprise that for the first time in decades, women are the leading contenders to run both the Democratic and Republican parties in the state.

Three women and three men have jumped into the race to lead the Michigan Democratic Party since Brandon Dillon, a former state representative from Grand Rapids, announced last month that he wouldn’t seek re-election as chairman.

On the Republican side, where the party was dealt a blow by a historic turnout in the 2018 elections and massive defections from the party by suburban women, former state Rep. Laura Cox of Livonia and Gina Barr, a GOP activist from Pontiac, are running for the job that Ron Weiser has decided to leave after serving two years.

If one of thethreewomen running for the Democratic leadership job — current chief operating officer of the party Lavora Barnes, Northville Democratic Club President Lisa DiRado, and Lathrup Village resident Rochell Kirby — win the position at a February state convention in Detroit, it will be the first time a woman has been at the helm of the party since Libby Maynard held the job from 1979 to 1983.

Ronna Romney McDaniel ran the Michigan Republican Party from 2015 until 2017, when she went on to become chairwoman of the Republican National Committee.

“Party leaders are gatekeepers, so it’s incredibly important to have women in those roles,” said Jean Sinzdak, associate director at the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University in New Jersey. “When women are in those positions, they lift other women up and serve as role models and create a space for women to join in and participate.”

After the 2016 election cycle that ushered in Donald Trump as president, women became energized, filling Washington D.C. and cities across the country for the Women’s March the day after his inauguration and joining resistance groups such as Indivisible, Our Revolution and Fems for Dems.

The results were undeniable, across the country and in Michigan. Not only did Democrats flip red seats to blue up and down the ballot, but female candidates also made significant gains, picking up the governor, attorney general and secretary of state jobs in Michigan, holding onto a U.S. Senate seat, adding three more women to Michigan’s delegation in the U.S. House of Representatives and nearly tripling the number of seats in the state Senate from four to 11 and from 33 to 42 in the state House.

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“Women becoming Democratic leaders would represent a continuation of the elevations for women,” Sinzdak said. “For the Republican Party, it has been the reverse. It wasn’t a good year for Republican women. They lost a number of Republican women serving in the (U.S.) House. And The Republican Party got more white and more male in this particular election cycle.

“The challenge for the party is: How do we look more inclusive?”

That’s what Cox is hoping to accomplish as leader of the GOP. While one of her primary goals is to deliver Michigan for Trump’s re-election in 2020, she also hopes her own backstory — suburban wife and mom, former border agent for Immigration and Customs Enforcement and former county and state elected official — will resonate with women who left the party in 2018.

“Part of it is, I’m one of them. I’m a suburban educated woman,” she said. “And Trump has done a lot of really great things — tax reform was huge for our economy. We need to make sure we focus on the positive.”

Cox announced recently she will run with conservative activist Terry Bowman as co-chair. He's a Ford worker and former UAW member who was active in the push for right-to-work legislation and was a statewide co-chair for the 2016 Trump presidential campaign.

Gina Barr, the former national director of Women and Urban Engagement for the Republican National Committee, said in a social media post that she joined the race to breathe new life in the party after the devastating losses in 2018.

"The solutions will not be easy, but I'm not looking for easy, I'm looking for the win," she said. "Over the next coming months, I hope you will all adopt this following mantra with me: Less Politics. More Truth."

Saul Anuzis, the former chairman of the Michigan Republican Party, said it's a good thing that women will lead the party, but it's not an overriding factor for him..

"I think it’s helpful, but there are good candidates on both sides who just happen to be women," he said. "I do think we continue to have a problem in communicating our message. And it's helpful having women in the forefront running for office and being party leaders because they relate to and talk to people differently. They could do a better job of communicating on the issues."

On the Democratic side, Barnes, an Ann Arbor resident, has the early inside track on the job, gaining the endorsements of Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, Attorney General Dana Nessel and current party chairman Dillon, as well as from organized labor powerhouses the UAW and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) Local 25.

"She’s one of the best political operatives in the country," Dillon said. "She’s an incredible organizer and inspires confidence in people. She’s got all the qualities we need to continue the success we had in the last cycle."

Barnes started her Michigan political career as a staffer in the state House of Representatives in 2004 and became the state director for former President Barack Obama's re-election campaign in 2012. She worked for Oakland County Clerk Lisa Brown and came to the state party in 2015 as chief operating officer.

She wants to build on the successes of the 2018 election cycle and believes having a woman of color at the helm is both important and sends a strong message.

"There’s only been one woman chair of Michigan Democratic Party, so I love the idea of an African-American woman leading the party," she said. "Given all the work that African-American women do to sustain the party, it's important to reflect that in the membership and in the party's leaders."

DiRado believes the successes in Wayne and Oakland counties, where several state House seats and three state Senate seats flipped from Republicans to Democrats, proves that her decade of political organizing could translate well to the state party.

"My job is to train and bring up other political organizers. And we’ve had a lot of success in turning a red area blue," she said. "That involved sticking it out year after year. I know the things we do here are scalable throughout Michigan."

Also trying to position himself as the candidate with the most experience with organized labor is Greg Bowens, a political consultant from Grosse Pointe Park, who worked both as a journalist and a spokesman for former Detroit Mayor Dennis Archer, as well as being a party activist.

"I think that I have the unique skills to do it," he said. "From being on strike to helping manage strikes, I've really focused my efforts to help and be a part of the labor movement."

Long shots for the Democratic leadership role are: MD Alam of Detroit, who has run for both the state House of Representatives in 2018 and the Missouri secretary of state in 2016 and 2012; Patrick Biange of St. Clair Shores, who ran for the state Senate in 2018, the House of Representatives in 2012 and has already declared for the state House in 2020; and Chrysler retiree Rochell Kirby of Lathrup Village.

The Democratic Party will elect its leaders on Feb. 2 at Cobo Center in Detroit, while Republicans will gather for their state convention in Grand Rapids on Feb. 22-23.

Contact Kathleen Gray: 313-223-4430, kgray99@freepress.com or on Twitter @michpoligal.