Mair Rowlands, one of three Plaid Cymru Senedd members for Bangor Conwy Mon, has described her political journey from family campaigning to the Senedd, with education, young people and the Welsh language among her priorities.
Politics was always discussed at the dinner table in the Rowlands household, and the Welsh language is part of her core, personally and professionally. "I've had a political upbringing, always been involved in Plaid Cymru," she said.
Family roots and political beginnings
Growing up in Cardiff, her roots were firmly in north Wales, with family hailing from Caernarfon and Denbigh. Her parents, both teachers, moved to Cardiff for work. Her mum taught French, her dad geography, and her dad, well known in Plaid circles, held roles with the BBC and Environment Agency.
Both parents are long-term Plaid supporters. Her dad stood for election in 1999 for Cardiff West and in 2015's general election, he came within 230 votes of becoming the MP for Ynys Môn.
"I've been campaigning for Plaid Cymru from a very young age, from leafleting, but also going to things like protests for Welsh language education. We went as a family, but with a group from Plaid Cymru to the anti-Iraq War protest in London," she said. "But I don't think anyone would have thought I'd be a politician."
From student politics to council leadership
Now 37, she studied Welsh and Theology at Bangor University, where she got involved in student politics. She served as the Welsh Language Students' Union President in Bangor in 2010, for two years. In the middle of that was the 2011 devolution referendum, which she was involved in and where she got involved with Plaid formally.
In 2012 she was asked to stand on Gwynedd council. "I guess I had that appetite, so when they asked me, I thought 'Oh, I've nothing to lose'. I always like a challenge." It was a Lib Dem seat with a husband and wife in the seat, and she went into it thinking she might not win, but it was that challenge, and it was a relatively high-student area. She was 23 when first elected to the council.
"I ended up staying in Bangor then, and I've never left," she said. A role as a sustainable development officer for the university followed, and from 2014, she was on the council cabinet with the children's services, young people, leisure portfolio.
In 2017, she was re-elected representing the Upper Bangor ward and was then appointed deputy leader, taking on responsibility for corporate services, communications, equality and Welsh language. She served a year as deputy leader, and started as director at Bangor University Students' Union in 2018.
Balancing motherhood and a Senedd career
She had that role for eight years, and life changed when she had her son in 2023. When she stepped away from politics, lots of people asked if she was leaving politics, and she said she was open to seeing where life takes her.
She made the decision to put her name forward for the Senedd, and family life played into that, but the changes in the system gave her hope she could balance the two things. After so many years campaigning for Plaid and the Welsh language, she wanted to be there at the time it looked the party would have its most influence.
"It's so important to get more representation into politics of different areas of society. And just because I was a mother of a young child, I was also working as a chief executive of the Students' Union where I loved that job, but then I thought, 'I can do more.' It kind of just made sense and I thought, 'well, if I don't go for it now, I might miss the opportunity.'"
She is sharing the role as chair of the sport and culture committee and is on the children, young people and education committee, and hopes despite an adversarial start to the latest Senedd, there will be cross-party working.
"I want to see politics that's more compassionate and kind," she said. "Something I'm really passionate about is encouraging more women into politics. But you have to really kind of show that by actually being involved, making an influence, because obviously it is a challenging environment to be in."
"We've got a good group of female Senedd members to set the pace and set the course for this next Senedd, and into the next one as well."
