Rep. Saira Draper pictured on the state House floor with one of her children in 2023. Ross Williams/Georgia Recorder
Georgia’s political hopefuls are hitting the trail as the May 19 primary election approaches. But for parents, particularly mothers of young children, family responsibilities can make the process of campaigning a more complicated endeavor.
In Georgia, only 19 of the state’s 236 lawmakers were moms of children under the age of 18, according to a 2024 report released earlier this week by the Vote Mama Foundation, which tracks barriers that moms of young children face when seeking elected office. The state would need another 24 mom lawmakers to reach proportional representation, according to the report.
There are efforts underway to make it easier for moms of school-age children to run for office. Under a 2023 ethics commission advisory opinion, childcare costs incurred by candidates on the campaign trail are considered an “ordinary and necessary campaign expenditure,” meaning they can be paid for using campaign funds.
That can particularly help parents, said state Rep. Saira Draper, an Atlanta Democrat and mom who first ran for office when her kids were two, five and eight years old. She personally has not used campaign funds to cover childcare, but said the rule is “incredibly important, and maybe it is the difference for some people between being able to run for office and not being able to run for office.”
Lawmaker mothers with children in tow are still few in numbers but bring often missing perspective
However, data from this year’s report suggests that relatively few candidates in the Peach State are actually using funds this way. Only about $300 was recorded being spent on childcare cumulatively in Georgia between 2023, when the advisory opinion was released, and 2025. In North Carolina, which has allowed the use of campaign funds to cover childcare since 2020, the total was more than $26,000.
But Draper, who is currently running for a seat in the state Senate, said candidates may choose to prioritize other campaign expenses, particularly in local races where it may take more effort to engage voters. She said she relies on family and broader support system to help care for her children, who are now five, eight and 11 years old, while she’s on the campaign trail.
“Paying campaign funds for childcare has an opportunity cost. It’s at the expense of paying for mailers or for digital or for campaign staff,” said Draper. “So it’s great that we have the option, but the reality of the matter is, it’s not always something that we can rely on.”
State Rep. Jasmine Clark, a Lilburn Democrat whose daughter was eight years old when she first ran for her Gwinnett County-based seat, also noted that moms may face some stigma for using campaign funds for childcare, or even for seeking elected office at all. Her daughter, a student athlete, is now 17.
“Especially in the South, there’s a bit of stigma around being a working mom and trying to do both,” said Clark, who is also currently running for a seat in Georgia’s 13th Congressional District. “We’ve actually seen that play out on the campaign trail in some races where people will [say], ‘well, my children are older, and I don’t have to be pulled in multiple directions like some other people on the ballot.’ So there sometimes does carry a little bit of stigma.”
But Melita Easters, the executive director of Georgia WIN List, which is focused on electing more Democratic women who support reproductive rights, said mothers bring a vital perspective to the kinds of policy decisions made at the state Capitol.
“It’s important to have young mothers in office because they care about funding childcare,” Easters said. “They care deeply about education being properly funded. They also bring their unique perspective to many policy discussions across the board.”
The obstacles that candidates with younger children face on the campaign trail, she added, also makes them more likely to understand the challenges many of their constituents face on a daily basis.
“It gives an interesting twist to the old thing about Ginger Rogers dancing backwards and in high heels,” Easters said. “You know, young mothers campaign pushing a stroller sometimes, and changing diapers or juggling after-school appointments with knocking on doors.”
Allowing candidates to use campaign funds to cover childcare costs doesn’t just help women, either. Sen. Randy Robertson, a Cataula Republican, said he was previously able to use the funds to help cover the cost of childcare for his now seven-year-old daughter. Having parents of young children in the state Legislature, he added, brings a valuable perspective on both sides of the aisle.
“Most of the Georgians we represent are moms and dads, and so we can relate better to what their day-to-day experience might be,” he said.
State Rep. Beth Camp, a Concord Republican who teamed up with Democratic Rep. Stacey Evans of Atlanta to request the advisory opinion in 2023, acknowledged that there is still work to do to inform candidates that using campaign expenses in this way is even an option.
“We need to figure out a better way to advocate for it,” she said, adding that she planned to work with the state ethics commission to make it easier to distinguish childcare costs in candidates’ quarterly reports. “It needs to be its own box so we can actually see how many dollars are utilized in this particular area.”
