EMILYs List Endorses Portia Roberson for Congress

For Immediate Release
July 6, 2022 

EMILYs List Endorses Portia Roberson for Congress

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today EMILYs List, the nation’s largest resource for women in politics, endorsed Portia Roberson for election to represent Michigan’s 13th Congressional District. EMILYs List President Laphonza Butler released the following statement:
 
“Portia Roberson has been a dedicated public servant her entire career, and EMILYs List is thrilled to announce our support today for her campaign to represent the people of Michigan’s 13th Congressional District. Roberson’s experience at the intersection of local, state, and federal policy has given her the insight needed to find solutions to the real problems people are facing, and she has been a fierce advocate in her community for children, seniors, and those struggling to afford basic necessities. We are confident that Roberson has what it takes to fight for our freedoms during this challenging time, and we look forward to supporting her campaign in the coming months.”
 
Portia Roberson is a lifelong resident of Michigan’s 13th District, which she is now seeking to represent in Congress. Roberson is guided by the values her parents, a circuit court judge and a social worker, instilled in her throughout her childhood, including empathy, inclusivity, and a commitment to public service. She earned degrees from the University of Michigan and Wayne State University Law School. Throughout Roberson’s time working in the public, private and nonprofit sectors, she has remained dedicated to serving others. She proudly served as the director of the Office of Intergovernmental and Public Liaison for President Obama, and later served as the Detroit lead for the White House Domestic Policy Office’s Strong Cities, Strong Communities Initiative, where she secured millions of dollars in federal resources for Detroit. Roberson currently serves as the president and CEO of a large nonprofit that provides workforce training, a food program for seniors, and early learning in southeast Michigan. She is also the chair of the Michigan Civil Rights Commission and was named one of Michigan’s 100 most influential women for her service to the state.

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.