First! ….
We have been getting so many political ads in the mail, but one of them caught my eye. It’s for a judicial election, and the candidate prominently notes “NAME OF CANDIDATE WOULD BE THE FIRST ASIAN AMERICAN FEMALE JUDGE ELECTED BY THE 20TH SUBCIRCUIT.”
You can probably already guess that she obviously wouldn’t be the first female elected. You can probably also guess that she wouldn’t be the first Asian-American woman elected in Cook County. (not even close)
But what you probably don’t know is that the 20th Subcircuit was only created in 2022. There has only been one election for that area, and two judges (one man, one woman) were elected. There is no glass ceiling she’s breaking through. No great history of discrimination that will end with her election.
Everyone has to be “the first….” That’s meaningful when it means something, not when it’s trivialized to woo voters who don’t know the history.