Rep. Ilhan Omar and Isra Hirsi's mother-daughter activism

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July 28, 2020

Good morning, Broadsheet readers! Melania Trump is renovating the Rose Garden, more Black women than ever are running for Congress, and Rep. Ilhan Omar and her daughter Isra Hirsi reflect on their intersecting work and relationship. Have a lovely Tuesday.

– Mother-daughter time. When Rep. Ilhan Omar and her daughter Isra Hirsi signed on for an interview with Fortune‘s Most Powerful Women community yesterday, it was the first time the mother and daughter were seeing each other that morning.

“Good morning, Isra,” Omar said from D.C. to her Minneapolis-based daughter as we waited for the Zoom meeting to kick off. The pair joined Fortune senior writer Jen Wieczner and me for a conversation about their relationship, Hirsi’s work as a climate activist, and paying it forward to the next generation.

Before Omar had to head to the House floor for a vote, I asked her how Hirsi’s activism—the 17-year-old is a cofounder of the U.S. Youth Climate Strike and has also organized against gun and police violence—has affected her policymaking on Capitol Hill. Omar described a moment three years ago when Hirsi led a rally for gun control at the Minnesota State Capitol, where Omar then served as a state representative. “If my generation had acted with the urgency that her generation had acted,” the congresswoman remembers wondering, “would my daughter be at the state capitol asking for us to introduce sensible gun laws and to protect the lives of young people?”

It was a pleasure to hear from Omar, but Hirsi was the real star of the gathering (if you haven’t seen her TikTok account, I highly recommend it). The Most Powerful Women community members who joined us brought to the call their own mentees, from daughters to early-career colleagues, and Hirsi had advice for them about how to take action for a better world as she has: “Understand that you are valuable. Your voice is big and strong and powerful.”

And for the parents raising young activists, Omar has her own guidance: “Every time you are able to change a mind—or awaken a mind—you are winning in creating a better tomorrow.”

Read my colleague Beth Kowitt’s story about the rest of the gathering here.

Emma Hinchliffe
emma.hinchliffe@fortune.com
@_emmahinchliffe

ALSO IN THE HEADLINES

- 2020 milestones. The 2020 election has set another record: more Black women than ever before are running for Congress, Reuters reports. Another election cycle note: the rate of GOP women winning their races has fallen dramatically, reports Fortune's Nicole Goodkind.

- Quarantine gardening. Melania Trump has a new project: renovating the White House Rose Garden. The first lady aims to restore some of the Rose Garden's original design, as envisioned by 1960s horticulturist and philanthropist Rachel "Bunny" Mellon. CNN

- Retail redo. The retail industry is powered by women as employees and customers. But the biggest retail brands are led by male executives—especially in Europe, which has been slower than the U.S. to appoint women to these roles. Melanie Smith, CEO of U.K. grocer Ocado Retail and one of few women to head a European retail brand, says she worries the pandemic has lost another "20 years" of progress. Bloomberg

MOVERS AND SHAKERS: Felicia Mayo, Tesla's former diversity chief, is Nike's new chief talent, diversity and culture officer. The Charles Schwab Corporation added former Fidelity National Information Services COO Marianne C. Brown and Starbucks chief technology officer Gerri K. Martin-Flickinger to its board of directors.

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- Herd mentality. Herd immunity to COVID-19 only works if "you don't care how many people die," science writer Laurie Garrett argues in a new op-ed. The real problem with counting on the strategy? "Humans have free will." Fortune

- Madame prime minister. Last week, Gabon got its first female prime minister. The country's president appointed defense minister Rose Christiane Ossouka Raponda to the role with a mandate to guide Gabon through its economic recovery from the coronavirus pandemic. Al Jazeera

- Zoom bomb. How do you advertise a product everyone is using—but probably rather wouldn't be? Zoom CMO Janine Pelosi over the past several months focused on supporting users like K-12 schools rather than marketing to companies. AdAge

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