Childcare As A Campaign Expense? Here’s Why We Need It.

Liuba Grechen Shirley, a 2018 candidate for the 2nd Congressional District of New York, petitioned the FEC for approval to use some of the funds she was raising for her campaign on childcare. She was told it would be “political suicide,” but, in the end, the FEC unanimously ruled in Shirley’s favor deeming her childcare expenses a direct result of her campaign activity.

She would ultimately lose by 15,000 votes in the general election. Despite Shirley’s loss, she credits childcare support as a big reason for securing her name on the ballot in the first place and went on to found the Vote Mama Foundation to help others access this kind of support. Despite the FEC victory and recent advocacy on this front, only some parents in the U.S. are able to utilize campaign funds for childcare expenses when running for office, according to a new study by the Vote Mama Foundation. 

“By the time American women are 44 years old, 86% are mothers. Yet just 6% of people in the 117th Congress are mothers with school-aged children,” reads the study. The report explores the history of the use of campaign funds for childcare—what kind of impact it can make for those running for office, who has used it and who has access to it. 

Shirley’s FEC win certainly helped to pave the way for others running for office at the federal level. So far, some 51 candidates have tapped into this resource, according to the study. An analysis of the spending shows that this kind of campaign fund use is also on the rise. Whereas 23 federal candidates spent a total of $40,000 on childcare expenses in 2018, 33 federal candidates spent over $165,000 in 2020—a 311% increase. The report also found spending trends along gender and party lines. Women candidates spent 73% of the funds and 74% of the funds were utilized by Democrats. 

Several first-time candidates used their campaign funds for childcare and won, shattering glass ceilings along the way. Representative Jahana Hayes became the first Black woman and the first Black Democrat elected to Congress from Connecticut in 2018. In the same election cycle, Representative Ilhan Omar became the first Somali American and one of the first two Muslim women elected to Congress. In 2019, Representative Katie Porter became the first single mother in Congress. In 2021, Representative Nikema Williams assumed the seat of the late John Lewis and became the first woman to represent Georgia’s 5th Congressional District.

On the state and local levels, access to the utilization of campaign finances for childcare varies throughout the country, with each state enacting its own campaign finance laws. At present, 22 states have approved the use of campaign funds for childcare. Half of the states confirmed this approval through legislation, and the other half established access right through ethics commission rulings. 

Legislation priorities often stem from lived experience, and working parents who’ve been elected to office naturally come to the job with different perspectives and priorities than their colleagues without parenting responsibilities. “Most Americans my age are working parents…but there are few of us with a seat at the table when it comes to writing legislation to make life easier for working families,” Congresswoman Katie Porter is quoted as saying in the Vote Mama report. Buffy Jo Christina Wicks, a member of the California State Assembly, shared similar sentiments and cited her motherhood as a reason for pursuing her current office. “My daughter couldn’t be the reason I didn’t run. She had to be the reason I ran,” she said. 

Research confirms the effect motherhood has on legislative activity. A 2018 study that looked at congressional legislation from 1973 to 2013 found that congressional working mothers were more likely to introduce legislation aimed at addressing issues related to parenthood and childcare. 

Through her work with the Vote Mama Foundation, Liuba Shirley has had a front-row seat to this legislative activity in recent years. Despite these advancements, she believes progress on these fronts will continue to be slow-moving so long as representation of mothers in Congress remains low. She also points out that, in her opinion, women are uniquely suited for the pressures of public office. “Mothers with young children are made for the chaos of Washington. We are multitasking experts: We can nurse, change a diaper, broker sibling peace and balance a budget—all within an afternoon,” says Shirley. “It’s time to take down the institutional barriers blocking mothers from running for office. And if I’m going to win, then I need a babysitter.”