Coffee with a US senator; what should I bring up?

[Deleted]

A good friend of mine invited me to a ladies coffee group tomorrow morning with one of he US senators from our state. He's a Democrat, up for re-election this year in a tight race. Really a good guy who I have a lot of respect for.

It'll be a small group, under 20 women, and he's looking to touch base with us about issues important to women voters.

And I'm totaly stumped! Which is LAME! All I can think of is:
- rising cost of college educations/ how is the middle class going to put the next generation through college/ the student loan bubble
- I think its BS that FMLA guarantees only 12 weeks UNPAID. And only if your company has 50 or more employees (my cousin had to go back to work at 6 weeks because her company was under 50 employees)

Ladies, seriously, There are bigger women's issues to bring up. What is the burnin question MM would want me to ask a US senator!?

[mccallister84]

I would talk a lot about k-12 education.

[cahabalily]

Um, abortion and the right to choose?

[honeybee]

Funding to Planned Parenthood, many states have been stripping it lately and its one of the few places women can get affordable reproductive health care without insurance.

[Deleted]

Aug 28, 2012 16:26:15 GMT -5 cahabalily said:

Um, abortion and the right to choose?

He's pro choice and has voted a number of times to provide planned parenthood funding. I will tell him I support his work on this subject.

Am I thinking of this the wrong way? I'm trying to bring assistance to his campaign by raisin an issue which he can present during the campaign and be on he "right" side of in order to sway female voters.

His opponent definitely qualifies as a "douchecanoe".

[honeybee]

Continued support of head start and after school programs....women tend to disproportionally relay on these (single moms) as opposed to men and its another thing that conservatives have been slashing.

[midwest07]

Whatever subject you think of, you should have a personal story to attach to the issue. Politicians love to say "I was talking about this issue with a constituent, and he/she told me this personally impacted him/her, etc, etc." It will also help him actually remember the issue you brought up, rather than just saying "please support more funding for K-12."

Personally, and assuming he voted for the ACA, I would try to come up with a way it has or will personally help you and thank him for voting for it. He will probably be attached during the campaign for that vote, and some specific anecdotes as ammunition would be beneficial.

[magdala9]

I would bring up the the mortgage crisis

[drloretta]

Extending the adoption tax credit and/or making it permanent. And making sure it goes up for a vote this year.

[mskitkat]

The state of math and science education, specifically how textbooks are geared towards boys.