PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) – With the Democratic National Convention underway in Chicago, Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek joined a panel led by award-winning actress Julia Louis-Dreyfus on Wednesday.
The panel, hosted by the Democratic Governors Association, featured the eight total Democratic women governors in the country to discuss their rise to leadership and thoughts on the upcoming national election.
During the panel, Louis-Dreyfus touched on Gov. Kotek’s time as Oregon’s longest-serving Speaker of the House. She asked whether Kotek could recall the first time she was the only woman in a room or the only woman in a decision-making setting.
“Lots of those moments. First when I became Speaker, all the other leadership at the time was male, and you notice when you’re the only one in the room — I felt like everyday people weren’t in the room except for me,” she said. “People who were like, ‘What do the women think about this? We’re having this lovely conversation about this, but what does it mean for real people?’”
Since then, Gov. Kotek said things have changed for women leaders in her state.
“What I think we have all realized is, ‘I need a few more women in this room,’ and we are doing it every single day by modeling best behavior and showing what is possible,” she said.
Besides Gov. Kotek, the panel included Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs, Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly, Maine Gov. Janet Mills, Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, and New York Gov. Kathy Hochul.
In their announcement of the panel earlier this month, the Democratic Governors Association highlighted several of the governors’ accomplishments, including Kotek’s efforts to address Oregon’s housing crisis.
