EMILYs List Endorses Sharetta Smith for Mayor of Lima, OH

For Immediate Release
October 14, 2021

EMILYs List Endorses Sharetta Smith for Mayor of Lima, OH

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, EMILYs List, the nation’s largest resource for women in politics, endorsed Sharetta Smith for mayor of Lima, OH. Laphonza Butler, president of EMILYs List, released the following statement:

“EMILYs List is thrilled to endorse Sharetta Smith in the race for mayor of Lima, OH. After nearly five years working as the mayor’s chief of staff, Smith has a unique understanding of the challenges facing Lima and its residents. She is well equipped to improve public safety, expand economic opportunities, invest in Lima’s neighborhoods, strengthen the education system, and help to build a better city for all. We look forward to supporting Sharetta Smith’s historic campaign to become the first woman and first Black mayor of Lima.” 

Sharetta Smith’s grandparents came to Lima almost 80 years ago to work in the area’s steel mills. She was the child of an incarcerated parent and later became a young mom on public assistance while in college and law school. She survived cancer, fought her way out of poverty, and eventually became a public servant, serving first as assistant district public defender and later as a magistrate for Tennessee’s 11th judicial district. Most recently, Smith served as chief of staff for the City of Lima under outgoing Mayor David Berger. If elected, Sharetta Smith would be the first woman and first Black mayor of Lima. 

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, 158 women to the House, 26 to the Senate, 16 governors, and more than 1,300 women to state and local office. More than 40 percent 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.