EMILYs List Announces Top 2020 State-Level Targets in $20 Million Campaign

For Immediate Release
February 14, 2020
 

EMILYs List Announces Top 2020 State-Level Targets in $20 Million Campaign to Flip, Hold, and Expand Women’s Leadership in State Legislative Chambers

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, EMILYs List, the nation’s largest resource for women in politics, announced its strategic state targets for the 2020 election cycle. In addition to targeting several states where state legislatures control redistricting, EMILYs List is focused on legislative chambers where Republicans have consistently pushed appallingly anti-woman, anti-family agendas. EMILYs List will be working to flip the following chambers from red to blue by electing pro-choice Democratic women: the Arizona House and Senate, the Florida Senate, the Iowa House, the Minnesota Senate, the Michigan House, the North Carolina House and Senate, the Pennsylvania House and Senate, and the Texas House.

In addition to flipping these 11 critical chambers in eight states, EMILYs List will be working to hold Democratic majorities in chambers in Colorado, Minnesota, Nevada, and New Hampshire, and expand the number of pro-choice Democratic women serving in state legislatures in states like California, Georgia, Maine, New Mexico, Ohio, Washington, and Wisconsin. 

“We have a once in a decade opportunity to replace right-wing partisans with candidates who will not only put an end to the extremism, but draw maps that give voters a fair shot at the ballot box,” said EMILYs List President Stephanie Schriock. “EMILYs List is working hard to recruit and elect pro-choice Democratic women across the country who will stand with working families and permanently oust hundreds of out-of-touch state legislators. Republicans in our priority states have thwarted progress at every turn, championed draconian laws attacking women and families, and rigged the map to make themselves unbeatable. There is simply too much at stake to allow them to manipulate elections for years to come at the expense of working people.”

Last summer, EMILYs List announced an unprecedented $20 million investment in state and local elections for the 2019-2020 cycle targeting more 500 state legislative races. In addition to focusing on redistricting, the effort prioritizes states where there is great opportunity due to changing demographics, where a woman’s right to choose is under attack, and where there are rising women leaders pushing for change across the board.

In the 2018 cycle, the organization targeted more than 1,600 races in more than 20 states, increasing the number of women in statewide offices, state legislative seats, and municipal seats. We flipped seven chambers and laid the groundwork for future victories by gaining seats in more than 10 chambers that could potentially flip in 2020. In 2019, through our $20 million campaign, EMILYs List-endorsed women also helped flip the Virginia Assembly from red to blue and have since passed progressive legislation to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment and expand non-discrimination protections for LGBTQ Virginians. 

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.