Happy Friday! Welcome to our Media Round Up. Each week we’re collecting and sharing our favorite gender + politics stories. Here’s what caught our eye this week:

Harvard professor Danielle Allen to launch historic bid for governor

Emma Platoff, Boston Globe

On Tuesday, Harvard University professor, political philosopher and author Danielle Allen formally announced she would be launching her campaign for governor of Massachusetts. She is the first Black woman in the state to run for governor on a major party ticket. Allen holds a number of academic achievements including a MacArthur Genius Grant and leading Harvard’s Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics since 2015. If elected, Allen would become the first Black woman governor in the U.S. and the first woman governor elected in Massachusetts.

You can read the full article here.

Biden poised to double the number of Black women appeals court judges

John Fritze & Ledyard King, USA Today

President Joe Biden is on track to double the number of Black women serving in federal appeals courts from four to eight during his first few months in office. Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, who was confirmed on Monday, is Biden’s most notable nominee and his first appellate judge to be approved by the Senate. There are three other Black women on the path to confirmation, and if all of them are cleared by the Senate this would make history as the largest number of Black women serving on the nation’s federal appeals courts. “Black women bring a perspective to the bench that is sorely missing. It’s an exciting time for the president to be thinking intentionally about the need for that voice,” said Leslie Davis, CEO of the National Association of Minority & Women Owned Law Firms.

You can read the full article here.

‘It was exhaustion, it was sadness, it was fatigue’: America’s mayors call it quits

Lisa Kashinsky, Politico

After a grueling year in which the nation battled a number of devastating crises, mayors around the country decided to call it quits, creating a major disruption to America’s political pipeline. COVID-19 was only one factor that affected many city leaders’ decisions not to run for reelection, there was also the economic downturn associated with the pandemic, the murder of George Floyd which sparked protests around the country against police violence and the events surrounding the 2020 Presidential election. Now mayors all over the country are stepping down after years of serving, including Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms who announced last month that she would not seek reelection and cited feeling drained after Floyd’s death.

You can read the full article here.

Once again, Virginia Democrats are looking to female candidates to cement their grip on power

Gregory S. Schneider, The Washington Post

Both Republicans and Democrats have a record number of women candidates in this year’s Virginia House of Delegates elections, and for the first time ever, women make up more than half of the Democratic party’s nominees. “It’ll be the year of the woman,” said House Speaker Eileen Filler-Corn (D-Fairfax), who was the first woman to hold that position in the General Assembly’s history. 23 of the 99 Republican candidates are women, a significant increase from 14 in 2019. Both parties will compete for control of the House, with Democrats fighting to keep the majority they won two years ago.

You can read the full article here.

A woman has never been elected mayor of New York City. Will one of these women change that?

Ryan W. Miller, USA Today

New York has yet to have a woman mayor, but this year’s election could change that. This year’s mayoral race is centered around the city’s recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, policing and public safety. There are three women running in the Democratic primary and whoever wins is unlikely to face much of a challenge in the general election in November. Polling shows former NYPD officer Eric Adams as the frontrunner with Andrew Yang, Kathryn Garcia and Maya Wiley battling for the second spot. “If New Yorkers elect their first woman mayor, it would signal that they believe she is the best person in the race to lead the city out of the crises we’re in,” said Ester Fuchs, director of the Urban and Social Policy Program at Columbia University. The primary elections will take place on June 22.

You can read the full article here.