50,000 Women and Counting

For Immediate Release
October 25, 2019

50,000 Women and Counting

Following a historic cycle for pro-choice Democratic women, thousands more are inspired to hit the campaign trail 

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today EMILYs List, the nation’s largest resource for women in politics, announced that over 50,000 women have contacted the organization about running for office since Election Day 2016. EMILYs List President Stephanie Schriock released the following statement:
 
“It all started in the Virginia House of Delegates in 2017, then in 2018 — when a historic number of women were elected to Congress and to state and local offices across the country — it exploded and EMILYs List knew that it wasn’t just a moment — but a sea change — for pro-choice Democratic women stepping into their power. Women marched, made phone calls, knocked doors, and ran for office, looking for ways to use their voices to change the halls of power and improve their communities. As Republican-led legislatures pass dangerous bills to strip away reproductive freedom and access to affordable, quality health care, and the White House continues to cozy up to dictators and blatantly undermine our Constitution — more women than ever are joining the pipeline of future leaders in this powerful movement to lead their communities forward in 2020 and for cycles to come.”

 
To respond to the unprecedented influx of women inspired to run for office, EMILYs List created its Run to Win campaign — an organization-wide effort to recruit, train, and support women running for office across the country. The Run to Win program combines the insights and growth of several EMILYs List teams to expand recruitment efforts on the ground and since 2016 has trained more than 6,000 women through 70 in person Run to Win trainings and webinars in 25 states. The campaign also included the launch of its innovative online Training Center, an online platform that brings EMILY's List's over 30 years of expertise winning campaigns to prospective candidates everywhere. On the Training Center, candidates at any stage of their campaign have access to the first-of-its-kind tool to find seats to run for in their communities and over 200 pages of content to learn everything from “Building a Campaign Plan” to “Delivering Your Message.”

 
EMILYs List has cultivated a strong online community of nearly 8,000 women candidates and their supporters through Facebook. The thriving network allows former, current, and future pro-choice Democratic women candidates running for every level of office to share stories from the trail and build invaluable mentorships to run successful campaigns.

“One of the most important things that EMILYs List can do is build a network of women who know that running for office is not only possible, but necessary for our communities' future,” said Schriock. “Every day — and I mean every single day — women across our nation are signing up to run because they now have so many more women representing them in Congress, in their state capitals, and in their city councils and you better believe these women want to join those elected women to ignite lasting change.Women are standing up to fight for their families and champion solutions to challenges facing their communities. This is the new normal.”

EMILYs List, the nation’s largest resource for women in politics, has raised over $600 million to elect pro-choice Democratic women candidates. With a grassroots community of over five million members, EMILY's List helps Democratic women win competitive campaigns – across the country and up and down the ballot – by recruiting and training candidates, supporting strong campaigns, researching the issues that impact women and families, and turning out women voters to the polls. Since our founding in 1985, we have helped elect 150 women to the House, 26 to the Senate, 16 governors, and nearly 1,100 women to state and local office. Nearly 40 percent of the candidates EMILYs List has helped elect to Congress have been women of color. During the historic 2017-2018 cycle, EMILYs List raised a record-breaking $110 million and launched a record independent expenditure campaign. We helped elect 34 new women to the House, including 24 red-to-blue victories; enough seats to have delivered the U.S. House majority alone. Since the 2016 election, more than 50,000 women have reached out to EMILY's List about running for office laying the groundwork for the next decade of candidates for local, state and national offices.