In January, Jennifer Carroll Foy helped end nearly 50 years of inaction on the Equal Rights Amendment by leading a push to make Virginia the final state needed to ratify the landmark women’s rights legislation to the Constitution. Today, the 38 year old freshman state delegate and criminal defense attorney took on an entirely new, historic challenge, announcing she is running to become the next governor of Virginia.
Carroll Foy is the first black woman to run for statewide office in Virginia, and if elected, she would be the first black woman governor in the country. (She may not be alone in this historic moment—Democratic State Senator Jennifer McClellan, who is also a black woman, has also signaled plans to run for governor in 2021). But just three years ago, when she mounted her first campaign against a well-funded, deeply entrenched white Republican opponent for a seat vacated by another white Republican man, none of this seemed possible.
“When I decided to run, a handful of political people down in Richmond told me ‘no,’ they had their candidate. They figured flipping a Republican seat is really hard and I needed to wait my turn,” she told ELLE.com. Carroll Foy, who ran her campaign while pregnant with twins, went on to beat Michael Makee in a landslide.