EMILYs List Congratulates Cheri Beasley on Advancing to the General Election in North Carolina

For Immediate Release
May 17, 2022 

EMILYs List Congratulates Cheri Beasley on Advancing to the General Election in North Carolina’s Senatorial Election

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, EMILYs List, the nation’s largest resource for women in politics, congratulated Cheri Beasley on advancing to the general election to determine who will serve as North Carolina’s next U.S. senator. Laphonza Butler, president of EMILYs List, released the following statement:
 
“There is no one more qualified than Cheri Beasley to take on the leadership and responsibility of being the next senator from North Carolina, and EMILYs List is thrilled to continue to support Beasley in the general election. Whether as a public defender or the chief justice of the North Carolina Supreme Court, Beasley’s long and well-documented history of fighting for justice will serve her well in the senate at this crucial time when American rights of many kinds are under attack.”

After graduating from college and law school, Cheri Beasley began her legal career as a public defender in Fayetteville, North Carolina. In 1999, she was appointed as a state district court judge and won elections for the position in 2002 and 2006. In 2008, Beasley was elected to the North Carolina Court of Appeals by a commanding 15-point margin, becoming the first African American woman to win a statewide election in North Carolina. In 2014, Beasley was elected associate justice of the North Carolina Supreme Court despite a Republican wave that flipped other Democratic-held seats throughout the state. In 2019, Beasley made history by becoming the first African American woman to serve as chief justice of the North Carolina Supreme Court. If elected, Beasley would be North Carolina’s first African American woman U.S. senator, and only the third African American woman U.S. senator in history.

EMILYs List, the nation’s largest resource for women in politics, has raised over $700 million to elect Democratic pro-choice 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 and helping build strong campaigns, researching the issues that impact women and families, running nearly $50 million in independent expenditures in the last cycle alone, and turning out women voters and voters of color to the polls. Since our founding in 1985, we have helped elect the country's first woman as vice president, 159 women to the House, 26 to the Senate, 16 governors, and more than 1,300 women to state and local office. More than 40% of the candidates EMILYs List has helped elect to Congress have been women of color. After the 2016 election, more than 60,000 women 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. In our effort to elect more women in offices across the country, we have created our Run to Win program, expanded our training program, including a Training Center online, and trained thousands of women.