EMILYs List Invests More Than $500,000 in State Legislative and Local Races in Arizona

For Immediate Release
October 21, 2020

EMILYs List Invests More Than $500,000 in State Legislative and Local Races in Arizona

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today with just two weeks until Election Day, EMILYs List, the nation’s largest resource for women in politics, announced that it has invested a record $519,850 in the fight to flip the Arizona Legislature from red to blue, reelect Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego, and elect Julie Gunnigle as Maricopa county attorney and Whitney Walker to the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors. This is EMILYs List’s largest financial investment in Arizona’s state and local races and is part of an ongoing effort to flip legislative chambers and increase the number of pro-choice Democratic women serving across the country.

“Republicans have used local offices and their governing trifecta to attack reproductive freedom and undermine the civil rights of Arizonans,” said Stephanie Schriock, president of EMILYs List. “Given the GOP’s out-of-touch agenda and failed leadership on the public health and economic fallout of COVID-19, it is critical that Democrats gain the majority in the Legislature this November so they can hold the governor accountable and usher in a new era of progressive leadership at both the state and local levels. With early voting in full swing and so much at stake for women and families, we are confident that our historic investment will make the difference in the final push toward Election Day and help get our women over the finish line.” 

Democrats need to flip three seats in the Senate and two seats in the House to gain the majority. This cycle EMILYs List has endorsed 20 pro-choice Democratic women for the Legislature: Rosanna Gabaldón (SD-02), Lisa Otondo (SD-04), Felicia French (SD-06), Victoria Steele (SD-09), Kirsten Engel (SD-10), Lela Alston (SD-24), Rebecca Rios (SD-27), Christine Porter Marsh (SD-28), Charlene Fernandez (HD-04), Geraldine Peten (HD-04), Coral Evans (HD-06), Jennifer Pawlik (HD-17), Mitzi Epstein (HD-18), Jennifer Jermaine (HD-18), Judy Schwiebert (HD-20), Kathy Knecht (HD-21), Jennifer Longdon (HD-24), Athena Salman (HD-26), Kelli Butler (HD-28), and Raquel Terán (HD-30).

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 60,000 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.