Stephanie Hancock — Coloradan, Black Woman Running for State Office

Africa Agen­da

Stephanie Han­cock of Auro­ra (left) in the com­pa­ny of Auro­ra may­or Mike Coff­man, mem­bers of the Auro­ra City Coun­cil, friends, and well-wish­ers at JJ’s Place restau­rant in Auro­ra. Thurs­day, Sep­tem­ber 8, 2022.

His­tor­i­cal­ly, Black women hold few elect­ed or appoint­ed offices in the US. That is accord­ing to the Cen­ter for Amer­i­can Women and Pol­i­tics at Rudgers Uni­ver­si­ty. This trend may be chang­ing as some notable elec­tions and nom­i­na­tions have seen Black women and oth­er women of col­or take posi­tions of lead­er­ship in Amer­i­ca. This includes the elec­tion of Kamala Har­ris as vice-pres­i­dent and the appoint­ment and sub­se­quent con­fir­ma­tion of Ketan­ji Jack­son Brown to the Supreme Court.

The impact of what hap­pens in Wash­ing­ton, his­to­ry tells us, could have far-reach­ing con­se­quences down the bal­lot. The upcom­ing 2022 U.S midterm elec­tions could impact not just rep­re­sen­ta­tion in the House and Sen­ate in D.C. but also local races for gov­er­nors, as well as State House and Sen­ate politics. 

Black Women Running for Office

In Col­orado, intense elec­tion­eer­ing is tak­ing place two months before vot­ing begins. There are expec­ta­tions that the Repub­li­can Par­ty (GOP) would pick up seats in the State Leg­is­la­ture now con­trolled by Democ­rats. In the Cen­ten­ni­al State, it is also notable that a record num­ber of African Amer­i­cans are run­ning for office in this year’s elections. 

That is where we find Stephanie Han­cock of Auro­ra, who run­ning for office in the midterms as a Repub­li­can. She is a black woman, a vet­er­an of the US Air Force, and a moth­er and grand­moth­er who is hop­ing to help the GOP net a seat in House Dis­trict 41 cur­rent­ly con­trolled by Democ­rats. If she wins, she’ll rep­re­sent an aver­age of 80,000 res­i­dents of the state. 

Han­cock faces off against Demo­c­rat, Iman Jodeh in the Novem­ber elections. 

“We need to vote for Repub­li­cans up and down the bal­lot,” she said on Thurs­day, Sep­tem­ber 8 dur­ing a cam­paign event held at JJ’s Place, a restau­rant on the south­east cor­ner of Iliff and Cham­bers in Aurora. 

Han­cock was intro­duced at the event by Auro­ra’s may­or, Mike Coff­man. City Coun­cil mem­bers Dustin Zvonek, Danielle Jurin­sky, and Steve Sun­berg were in attendance.

The can­di­date says she wants to be known not for fear-mon­ger­ing or a men­tal­i­ty of vic­tim­hood, but rather for the free­doms and spir­it of entre­pre­neur­ship that Repub­li­cans rep­re­sent. Han­cock is run­ning on a plat­form that she says will help the state and the city that she lives in deal with “esca­lat­ing crime, an out­ra­geous cost of liv­ing, and a fail­ing edu­ca­tion­al system.”