we start with a few key Stories We following tonight the race to succeed the late Congressman Bill pascrell is all but set with Democratic leaders backing state senator Nelly Poe at this evening's County committee convention they're poised to tap the longtime legislator to replace pascrell on the November ballot support for po comes after she locked up key endorsements from Party leaders including Governor Phil Murphy and after she knocked out three Democratic Rivals who were also in the running the last among them assemblyman Benji Wimberly who dropped out late Wednesday now the ninth congressional district is dominated by democrats so the winner of tonight's convention will be heavly favored to defeat Republican nominee Billy prea if elected Poe would make history as the first Hispanic woman to represent New Jersey in Congress but she would also add to the state's overall female representation which currently stands at just two out of the 12 House Seats for more on that I'm joined by Jean Sinzdak the associate director at the center for American women and politics Jean so good to talk to you of course there's still a lot that has to happen but it appears anyway that Senator Nelly Poe uh will be the front runner at least in the race to succeed the late Congressman Bill pascrell also uh in the race to succeed the late Congressman Donald Payne L Monica mcgyver appears to be the front runner the AA parent there what does that do to the makeup of our Congressional Delegation um when I looked back we've never had a time where Four Women represented New Jersey in Congress well it would be a big moment for women's representation in Congress from New Jersey um as you said we've never had four women serving in our Congressional Delegation the high water mark is two which we currently have so we had already talking about how the likely um you know congresswoman mckyer would be the third and that would be a record and now it looks like we'll go to at least four and there's still another competitive race um the Sue Waltman race against Tom Kane is uh while likely Republican it is competitive so we could potentially even get to five this year yeah I wonder how that would change how uh government operates in DC and also in what it would mean for New Jersey just historically what we know about how women function um when they're in a position like this well we know that from the research that women bring their own perspectives and life experiences to policymaking so having diversity and representation is fantastic um it would be you know would it would mean a lot to women in New Jersey they would look at their Congressional Delegation and see people who look like them uh we also talk about the role modeling effect a lot it means that uh Young people will see a more diverse delegation in US Congress from their state which means they will you know they'll look at these women and men who were serving and say hey there are people who look like me I could be a member of Congress too so it's a very important moment for uh for the state yeah I mean certainly when you talk about representation right and it mirroring what your constituents uh or your constituency looks like when I think about Nelly Poe of course um this could be significant in that the Latino Community just lost a prominent figure in Senator Menendez leaving the Senate absolutely well and also we've never had a Latina represent the state in Congress so it would be a big moment in that way I know there are a number of groups who've been pushing for this for a long time um Latina Civic foundation for example uh and all a lot of the people involved in it have been pushing for greater representation among an elected office and so this would be a significant moment to have Nelly po serving in our Congressional Delegation it would mean a lot given that our state is one of the most diverse states in the country I think we're I think we have the fourth largest Hispanic population in the country so this would be a big moment and um you know given that uh we lost Senator mendez's representation it is it is nice to see a Latina come in to Congress in this moment would you you say Jean that the groundwork that started I mean it's been ongoing for many years but we really saw a significant shift in 2016 and 2018 with more women in general a greater pipeline uh for women who were getting into politics and running for elected offices is this sort of the the fruit of that labor that we're seeing I think to some degree absolutely um we especially I mean I think it even predates that by years if not decades but we certainly saw in 2018 and um and since then we've seen record numbers of women running for and winning office in the US particularly on the Democratic side so this certainly mirrors the trends that we've been seeing um it's interesting that there's been so many opportunities for you don't normally see that right in any one year there wasn't really this expectation that there would be so many opportunities in Congress um um in the state this year and it just played out that way unfortunately due to a couple of deaths and um in some cases so but um you know women were poised and ready to go and um so to your point that pipeline has really made all of the difference Jean Sinzdak is the associate director at the center for American women in politics Jean thanks so much oh thank you so much [Music]