Each time a woman stands up for herself, without knowing it possibly, without claiming it, she stands up for all women. — Maya Angelou

LEADING THE CHARGE 

To her distinctly unique credit, Kendra Calico is steadfastly standing on business.

Especially with Election Day fastly approaching.

“After running as a previous presidential candidate, I understand the barriers that impact voting initiatives and reduced outcomes,” Calico told Making Headline News this week.

As a result, Calico, a native Memphian and Mid-South-area businesswoman, has gone to great lengths to spearhead women’s voting rights, most notably as a fixture for the Pentecostal Baptist Women’s Church Movement.

LET OUR VOICE BE HEARD 

Tennessee voters began heading to the polls October 16 as early voting kicked off the 2024 general elections.

Tennessee ballots will include a string of high-profile races from the presidential match-up, a Tennessee U.S. Senate election, competitive down-ballot races, and the transit referendum in Nashville.

Election Day is November 5.

“Being a part of the Pentecostal Baptist Women’s Church Movement, voting rights are one of our most essential levels to impact women who are feeling voiceless,” Calico said. “It is my quest to empower women.”

An esteemed licensed evangelist, Calico has garnered high praise in recent years in large part because of her influential impact as part of the Every Vote Counts movement.

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Widely regarded as a student-led, nonpartisan organization dedicated to increasing voter turnout and expanding voter access nationwide, the vision for Every Vote Counts (EVC) is centered in large part on customarily engaging the public by helping students, chapters, and partners become year-round hubs of civic engagement on campus, thus by activating student network across three initiative areas: elections and voter engagement, civic education, and pro-voter advocacy and reform.

Moreover, EVC is committed to aiding students either start a dedicated, institutionalized organization on campus, or work to support and amplify existing student-led efforts.

According to EVC officials, voting rights are the “cornerstone of our democracy,” and voting the fundamental “operating system” of the American republic. However, significant challenges to voting rights today, by all accounts, threaten to hold back democracy on the electoral and legislative level.

“We believe that all political questions — domestic, foreign, economic, social, environmental — depend on a functioning and fair voting system,” said an EVC spokesperson of this New York-based organization’s mission. “When that system is flawed, the voice of the people is not fully heard.

“Building on the hard-won voting rights victories of the past, Every Vote Counts seeks to strengthen our democracy for future generations by making sure that every American who is eligible to vote can easily do so — and that every vote counts.”

For what it’s worth, this especially rings true with regards to women’s voting rights in America, Calico emphasized.

“Women’s voting is important due to the associated biased women face in gender inequality levels and resource barrier allocation,” Calico told MHN. “I have had many opportunities to speak with legislators to discuss narratives and being a part of a legislative advocacy group called, The Memphis Lift.”

A credible nonprofit organization that was founded in July 2015, The Memphis Lift network has increasingly grown to become a passionate group of over 1,000 volunteer parents, grandparents and concerned family members and community members who feel their children have been underserved in failing schools and their voices and concerns have not been heard.

CHANGING A GENERATION

Besides building solid rapports with EVC and The Memphis Lift, Calico has made it a point to meet with one of the longest existing voting organizations in America, during which she urged officials to join what is known as the Voter’s Voice Initiative.

“(We are committed to) providing voting literature and advocacy information to communities in voter’s silent zip codes,” Calico told MHN.

Interestingly enough, Calico doesn’t shy away from the notion that she is fully committed to ensuring women’s voting rights are successfully exercised.

“We have joined with organizations to ensure barriers are resolved that impact voting number reduction,” Calico told MHN.

Standing for global social change, world hunger, and a stronger democracy, Calico is widely regarded as a voice for refugee equality.

To her credit, she was honored to have been a part of the National Women’s Hall of Fame with notable women leaders such as Hillary Clinton and Oprah Winfrey, among others.

In collaboration with Memphis’ chapter of the League of Women Voters, Calico has stood for global women voting rights, becoming a voice for immigrants, the tribal literacy campaigning for Pro-Life, and equal transportation policies and church development.

GOD-ORDERED STEPS

Having attended the prestigious Oral Roberts University, her national contributions include being a servant leader and equality voice for the poor person’s campaign.

Alongside Civil Rights leaders her national achievements include expanding women’s aviation educational resources at Lane College and providing and fostering children’s miracle hospital support, during which she advocated for ASPCA, USO, Red Cross, Fallen Firefighters, Big Brothers Big Sisters, and Habitat for Humanity.

For more information about Mid-South Businesswoman Kendra Calico of the Pentecostal Baptist Women’s Church Movement, to inquire about women’s voting rights, for interview requests or to schedule her for a public appearance, call 901-431-2965 or connect with her by sending email to [email protected].

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Andre Johnson is the award-winning Founder and Publisher for Making Headline News. A 2000 graduate of the University of Memphis School of Journalism and a former staff reporter of sports for the Memphis Commercial Appeal newspaper, Johnson covers the NBA Southwest Division from Dallas, Texas. To reach Johnson, send email to [email protected] or to [email protected]. Also, follow him on Twitter @AJ_Journalist or Instagram at @makingheadlinenews.

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