While you may not be thinking about November, those running for office are, and so are national magazines. One features an Orlando-area woman running for office, right on its cover.
- Anna Eskamani, running for Florida House District 47
- Featured in Time Magazine cover of women running for office
“There’s the TIME magazine cover and there are 48 women in total, and we are right on the front,” said Anna Eskamani, a local Planned Parenthood advocate turned political hopeful.
Eskamani will be seen front and center on the cover of TIME magazine’s February edition, a place she never thought she’d wind up. Each of the 48 women on the cover are all running for local and national offices for the first time.
“This is not just a moment in time, this a movement in our history,” said Eskamani, who is running for Florida House 47 as a Democrat. District 47 includes parts of Orlando and Winter Park, and is held by a Republican.
Eskamani says she’s always been politically active but the idea to run came after the 2016 presidential election. She says the current political climate made her feel like her voice wasn’t being heard. Like many other women in Florida, she participated in many women’s marches and then decided it was time to run for office.
“We see a lot of policy that doesn’t necessarily center on the issues that women, children and families face," Eskamani said. "So having gender parity in these legislative bodies will make a big difference.”
Eskamani isn’t the only woman running for office in Central Florida for the first time. Republican political analyst Michelle Ertel says she's seeing more women get involved in politics, gearing towards the November election.
“We are seeing women all over the place jumping in, and where before they were on the peripheral, we are now seeing them run for office. It’s a good thing,” said Ertel.
According data pulled from 2017, more than half of the people living in Florida are women, but only about 25 percent of all state legislators are women. That's something both Ertel and Eskamani believe will change in the next few elections.
“I'm very confident that this energy is here to stay, and at the same time it’s up to people like me, who are leaders in this community, who have been facilitators of the women’s movement, to help make sure this movement is going in a positive direction,” Eskamani said.
Eskamani, who is 27, is one of the younger, but not the youngest, women to run for a Florida House seat.
She hopes to be the very first Iranian-American female to ever be elected into the Florida House.