Power Women 2021: Natalie James
U.S. Senate candidate for Arkansas
Multi-million dollar producing Realtor
What’s your secret to success?
Understanding the value and importance of cultivating strong relationships with everyone you meet. The goal is to treat people how you want to be treated and to leave everyone you interact or meet with better than how you found them.
What attracted you to your career?
What attracted me to people was a deeply instilled value from my family of having a servant spirit and being a public servant. I come from a long line of teachers with over 170 years of teaching and giving. My mother worked as a LRSD teacher for 34 years, nurturing and molding the minds of the upcoming generation. My father was a retired insurance broker, worked at their family store “Uncle T’s” (a community staple) and was also a minister in his later years. My parents raised their four girls teaching them the importance of fellowshipping with others and making lasting relationships with the community and nationwide. The James family grew up African Methodist Episcopal in Little Rock at Bethel A.M.E. We have met and worked with countless others all over the United States. What attracted me to running for one of the highest offices in the United States was to be who I needed, and to be the woman that my daughters need.
How did you get started in your field?
My start in politics began early in life. In high school, I ran for our senior class secretary and thoroughly enjoyed the campaign process of meeting and talking with my fellow student constituents. That love of people took me to surrogacy, business consulting, and then into real estate. I entered the real estate field in 2015 and became a top producer agent and have remained that. I decided to move my focus to more community-oriented endeavors after being appointed on the land bank commission in Little Rock and realizing what I could do for the different communities that I drive through every day as a realtor. Having the ability to make a difference by working with everyone drives me and is also one reason why I decided to throw my hat into the ring and run for the United States Senate. I want to go to Washington to make sure all backgrounds, cultures, and people are represented.
WHAT ADVICE WOULD YOU GIVE TO A YOUNG WOMAN STARTING HER CAREER?
The best advice I would give any woman is to give it your all, and embrace the failures. Because they’re truly not failures– they are life lessons and learning opportunities. They show you the resilience that you are made of and how to overcome that obstacle, if and when, you see it again.
“No matter the endeavor, nothing is at its best running at half capacity. That includes politics. The more girls see women running for office, the more they will be inspired to step up and make sure Arkansas and our nation will operate at full power. Nothing else is acceptable.”
Senator Joyce Elliott
“It’s always so exciting to me to see strong Democratic women running for office, and that’s exactly why I do this work. As the Executive Director of Emerge Arkansas, my number one goal is to recruit and train Democratic women to run and win. Anyone who is interested in learning more can reach out to me at contact@emergear.org.”
Stephanie Baker – Emerge Executive Director
Do you have a favorite quote?
“When the women of the country come in and sit with you, though there may be but very few in the next few years, I pledge you that you will get ability, you will get integrity of purpose, you will get exalted patriotism, and you will get unstinted usefulness.”
Rebecca Latimer Felton – American writer, lecturer, reformer and politician who became the first woman to serve in the United States Senate in Address to the Senate, November 21, 1922
