Stephanie Hausner: The Importance of Asking

Recently I had the pleasure of interviewing Clarkstown, NY Town Council candidate Stephanie Hausner. Stephanie is a WCF endorsed candidate, a She Should Run ™ member and a WCF Next Generation Member! She has an impressive background working on political campaigns and being highly involved in the Democratic Party—she is even a Young Democrats of America Democratic National Committeewoman. We spoke about She Should Run™, the importance of asking qualified women to run for office, and her experience running as a young, single, woman in a town that has never seen a candidate like her.

Stephanie was nominated for She Should Run™ in the same year that she attended the WCF Parties of Your Choice Gala as a Next Generation member. In college, Stephanie wrote her senior thesis on “women presidents and prime ministers…especially the political institutions within countries that have women as presidents and prime ministers and how that helps other women in those counties run for other offices.” From this project she already understood “it’s all about the farm team or the pipeline… [and] young women need a little bit of a push.” 

For Stephanie, She Should Run™ was an early push, and another critical push for this race came from the Democratic Chairwoman in Clarkstown who asked Stephanie straight-out, “when are you going to run?” Stephanie says that these multiple “asks” gave her the confidence to run in this race.

“I think it was the extra encouragement that made me think, ‘OK. I can do it this year.’ It might have been the kind of thing that I would have left aside… then maybe five years from now or ten years from now I would have run. [The “asks” were] a way for me to say ‘it’s not in my head. It’s not just me saying I would do a good job…but other people think I would too, and other people in my community want me to serve the community.’” Said Hausner.

Stephanie is now glad that she decided to run for office at age 25, and while she was prepared to field criticism about her youth, she has found it to be an asset among voters. She came out of her primary as the top vote-getter, and she believes “people really want younger people in office…if more young women ran, more young women would win.” As for being a young single woman in the race, “I thought I would get flack for that, but it hasn’t been that bad other than a couple people offering to set me up with their grandchildren.”

My conversation with Stephanie reinforced what I already knew: asking a woman to run can be the critical push that puts her on a path towards leadership and changing the face (and the priorities) of politicians. “I think the biggest thing is just going for it. Just decide that you’re going to run.” said Stephanie. For more see Lauren’s Post on the Women and Politics Blog!

This post by WCF Fellow Bonnie O’Keefe