EMILYs List Endorses Nikki Budzinski for Congress

For Immediate Release
November 23, 2021

EMILYs List Endorses Nikki Budzinski for Congress

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, EMILYs List, the nation’s largest resource for women in politics, endorsed Nikki Budzinski to represent Illinois’ 13th District in the U.S. House of Representatives. Laphonza Butler, president of EMILYs List, released the following statement:

“We are thrilled to stand with Nikki Budzinski as she runs to flip Illinois’ 13th Congressional District from red to blue. Throughout her career, Budzinski has been a tireless advocate for working people and families in Illinois. She helped lead the fight to secure a $15 minimum wage, protect workers’ rights, and expand broadband internet throughout the state. She also worked at the federal level to help implement the American Rescue Plan serving as the chief of staff at President Biden’s office of Management and Budget. In Congress, Budzinski will continue to improve the lives of workers, including by focusing on affordable college and job training, affordable child care, and an equitable economic recovery. We look forward to working with Budzinski to flip this seat from red to blue and to elect a champion for Illinois’ families.”

Born in Peoria, IL, Nikki Budzinski is the granddaughter of a union painter and a public school teacher. She attended the University of Illinois Champaign and was inspired to pursue a career in public service after interning with former Congressman Dick Gephardt, former Sen. Paul Simon, and Planned Parenthood. She has worked to protect firefighters' rights with the IAFF and has fought for grocery workers and meatpackers with the UFCW. Budzinski then served as Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s senior advisor on labor issues and as the chair of the Illinois Broadband Advisory Council. She then served as chief of staff for President Biden’s Office of Management and Budget.

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.