Rob Hardin / rh124104@ohiou.edu

Pauline Phillips runs through the crowd of supporters at the Democratic Party rally in Nelsonville on Saturday, while showing her support for her mother Debbie Phillips who is running for state representative.

Six-year-old Pauline Phillips bobbed in her chair and stared without expression into the large crowd that had gathered to rally for U.S. Senate candidate Sherrod Brown.

Her expression remained blank, even as the crowd began chanting the name of her mother, Debbie Phillips, a Democratic Athens councilwoman running for the 92nd District seat in the Ohio House of Representatives.

Only when Phillips patted her daughter on the knee did Pauline rise to accompany mom on the podium.

Then, to the tune of “It’s raining, it’s pouring,” Pauline and her mom led the crowd in a song about education spending.

It’s not unusual for candidates to take their children along at campaign stops, but women face unique challenges in doing so, said Jerry Miller, a professor in Ohio University’s School of Communication Studies.

If female candidates don’t bring their children along, people wonder about their abilities as mothers. If they do bring their children along, people wonder about their abilities as candidates.

“It’s a double-edged sword,” Miller said. “It’s inconsistent with our expectations for men. We don’t really expect men to talk extensively about their family.”

For Phillips, the decision was difficult — but not because she’s a woman. First, she didn’t want to make Pauline do anything the young girl didn’t want to do. Second, she didn’t want to subject her 6-year-old to any sort of harassment, which some of her campaign people have faced.

“I did think about whether there would be any kind of issue,” Phillips said. “There’s no pressure at all. It’s only the things she wants to do.”

Pauline’s brother, 15-year-old Jeremiah, is supportive but less involved in the campaign, Phillips said. The idea of walking in parades doesn’t appeal to the high school boy.

Pauline is a regular kid with a political mom. She’s in Brownies and takes dance and piano lessons. She thinks her brother is “annoying.” Her favorite campaign activity is walking in parades. At Cold Stone Creamery, she gets cotton candy ice cream with gummy bears and heath bar. She wants to be a veterinarian when she grows up.

But the 6-year-old seems to have a political streak. During Phillips’ campaign for city council, Pauline helped her mom go door-to-door passing out campaign literature. When the pair got home, Pauline went back outside and asked her mom to go in and answer the door so she could give her the literature, Phillips said.

Jimmy Stewart, Phillips’ opponent in the race for the Ohio House of Representatives seat, doesn’t often take his three stepchildren — ages 8, 10 and 15 — to campaign events. He even declined to name them for this article, saying only that Pauline’s song ignores the fact that he was one of the few state representatives to introduce a bill dealing with school funding reform.

“(My kids) are not running for state representative,” he said.

But the pressure’s not on Stewart as much to have his children as part of the campaign because he’s a man,” professor Miller said. “The perceived significance would not be as strong,” he said. “It’s just a campaign reality that women candidates have to be ready to respond to.”